California nurse tests positive for coronavirus one week after receiving vaccine:
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1344292928215281665
A California nurse tested positive for COVID-19 just one week after he received the Pfizer vaccine.
The nurse, identified as Matthew W., got the first dose of the vaccine on Dec. 18 and only experienced slight arm soreness at the time.
Within six days, the 45-year-old began to experience chills, muscle pain and fatigue, all of which have been identified as symptoms of the coronavirus, according to a local ABC News station.
Matthew had been working a shift in the COVID-19 unit of his hospital the day he felt ill, and he later took a test for the virus that confirmed he was positive, ABC News reported.
Infectious disease specialist Christian Ramers, who works with Family Health Centers out of San Diego, told ABC's KGTV that it is not unexpected for someone who has been vaccinated to contract the virus. He explained that it takes a while for the vaccine to develop its protection from COVID-19.
"We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine," Ramers told the news outlet.
Ramers added that the first dose of the vaccine does not provide complete protection from the virus on its own.
"That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50 percent, and you need that second dose to get up to 95 percent," he said.
He went on to explain that it is possible Matthew had contracted the virus prior to receiving that first shot on Dec. 18.
With the coronavirus incubation period lasting nearly 14 days, he may have not begun to show symptoms until after he was already vaccinated, ABC News reported.
"You hear health practitioners being very optimistic about it being the beginning of the end, but it’s going to be a slow roll, weeks to months as we roll out the vaccine," Ramers said.
The vaccine has begun to roll out slowly across the United States, with many first responders and health care workers being among the first to receive it.
Earlier this week, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first dose of the vaccine and encouraged Americans to get theirs once it is available.
“It is relatively painless. It happens really quickly. It is safe,” she said at the time.
“Literally, this is about saving lives,” she added. “I trust the scientists, and it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/532062-california-nurse-tests-positive-for-coronavirus-one-week-after-receiving