Since the Covid-19 vaccine was made available, some countries have already been vaccinating their patients. In most countries, the frontliners are the first to receive the vaccine. However, there have been many reports of side effects and issues that these receivers have faced.
Similarly, a male ER nurse from San Diego reportedly tested positive for Covid-19, eight days after receiving the vaccination.
ER nurse Matthew W. received the Pfizer vaccine on 18 December, according to his post on Instagram.
He even added a humourous caption to his post saying “Got my Covid vaccine! The 15 minutes afterward sitting around with a bunch of others while health care workers asked us how we felt made me think of an opium den. I’ll report back if I start to grow a third arm.”
On Christmas Eve, Matthew, who works at two different hospitals across San Diego, started feeling sick after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit.
He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue.
Naturally, he went to a drive-up hospital testing site the day after Christmas. It was then confirmed that he tested positive for COVID-19.
Although this came as a surprise to the world, according to ABC News, a few health experts weighed in on the case and explained why this is actually not unexpected.
Dr Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego said “It’s not unexpected at all. If you work through the numbers, this is exactly what we’d expect to happen if someone was exposed.”
Ramers explained that it is possible for Matthew to have been infected with the virus before receiving the vaccine. But, also pointed out that even if Matthew did contract the virus after receiving the vaccine, it’s still in line with what health care professionals know.
“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 explained.
‘That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%,” Ramers added on.
As for Matthew, he is feeling much better since his symptoms appeared last week.
Matthew’s story also shows that even upon receiving the vaccine, the pandemic isn’t going to turn around instantly. It is not simply that easy.
“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,” said Dr. Ramers.
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Also Read: Malaysia Projected To Have Over 6,000 Daily Covid-19 Cases By March 2021 Despite Vaccine Rollout
