ER Nurse Tests Positive for COVID-19 Eight Days AFTER Pfizer Vaccine
California health worker vaccinated on December 18, fell ill just days later
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A California nurse has tested positive for COVID-19 eight days after he received his Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, according to reports.
San Diego hospital ER health worker Matthew W. was vaccinated on December 18, according to his Instagram post.
"Got my Covid vaccine!" Matthew wrote.
"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."
However, Matthew, who works at two different SD hospitals, began feeling ill after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit on Christmas Eve.
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He told ABC 10 News, that he first got the chills before coming down with muscle aches and fatigue.
On December 26, he went to a hospital to get tested for the virus and tested positive.
And while it is surprising, it's not unexpected, according to health experts who weighed in on the case.
Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego, told the station: "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."
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Ramers said it is possible that Matthew was infected before receiving the vaccine.
And if Matthew did contract the virus after 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 said.
Ramers also said that he's aware of other cases where health care workers became infected around the time they received the vaccine.
"That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%," Ramers added.
Matthew says he is feeling better since his symptoms appeared last week.
