An emergency room nurse said he tested positive for COVID-19 about a week after receiving his first dose of the virus’s vaccine.
Identified as Mathew W., the California nurse received the vaccine on Dec. 18, according to ABC 10 News San Diego. On Christmas Eve, after working a shift in a coronavirus unit, the nurse said he began to feel sick, experiencing chills and later muscle aches and fatigue.
The day after Christmas, Matthew received a drive-up COVID-19 test. He said his result came back positive.
Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego, told ABC 10 that such a result is not “unexpected.”
“If you work through the numbers, this is exactly what we’d expect to happen if someone was exposed,” he said.
It’s possible Matthew was exposed before receiving the vaccine, and even if he were exposed after, his infection wouldn’t be a surprising outcome, Ramers said.
“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 said, adding that one’s protection level increases with the second dose. “That first dose, we think, gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%.”
The doctor added that masks, hand-washing, and other preventive measures will still be important even after people have received the vaccine.
