By Aiyeku Timothy
A 45-year-old nurse in San Diego, Matthew W. is reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, just after receiving the Pfizer vaccine on December. 18.
Six days after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit, Matthew displayed symptoms like chills, muscle pain and fatigue and was later confirmed to have tested positive after a drive-up hospital test.
An infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego said the development is not unexpected as patients do not immediately develop COVID-19 protection after being vaccinated.
“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 added that even after those 10 to 14 days, patients still need a second vaccine dose for full protection. “That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%,”
Scientists have also opined that since the incubation period for COVID-19 can be as long as 14 days, it’s also possible that Matthew was infected prior to receiving the vaccine on December 18.
In another scenario, a head nurse at a Chattanooga hospital in Tennessee, Tiffany Dover, fainted earlier this month at a press conference after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine shot.
During her interaction with the press on December 19, Dover suddenly started feeling uneasy and said, “Sorry, I’m feeling really dizzy.” The nurse was seen fainting on camera as medical experts came to assist her.
Meanwhile, an unnamed nursing home resident in Switzerland, who was among the first in the country to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has died.
It is, however, unknown if the death was COVID-19 related or caused by the vaccine as investigations are currently ongoing by scientists.
The resident, who received the coronavirus vaccine on Christmas Eve, had previously reacted negatively to the flu shot, according to reports.
The person, who had dementia, complained of urethral and abdominal pain on Saturday, later had a drop in blood pressure dropped and pulse spiked before the death on Tuesday.
These reports come in amidst concerns in many parts of the world, especially Africa over the safety of the vaccine and fears that compulsory vaccination may be adopted as public health measures for the containment of the SARS-COV2 virus. Already in many public and private interactions, such as international travel, operators have been mulling notions of making certificate of vaccination part of prerequisite of boarding and entry.
