ER Nurse Tests Positive For COVID-19 Eight Days After Getting the Vaccine

• On Christmas Eve, Matthew started to feel sick after his shift in the COVID-19 unit. He works at two different hospitals in San Diego.
• According to health experts, it’s “not unexpected at all,” even though it’s surprising that it happened.
• The nurse said that he’s been feeling better since exhibiting the symptoms last week.

A California ER nurse identified as Matthew W. tested positive for the coronavirus eight days after he was injected the Pfizer vaccine. According to his post on Instagram, he received the vaccine on December 18.

On Christmas Eve, Matthew started to feel sick after his shift in the COVID-19 unit. He works at two different hospitals in San Diego. He revealed to ABC 10 News that he got the chills before experiencing fatigue and muscle aches.

He went to a hospital on December 26 to get tested and he got a positive result. But according to health experts, it’s “not unexpected at all,” even though it’s surprising that it happened.

Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego, explained that it’s possible that the nurse was infected before receiving the vaccine.

“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.

He added that there were similar cases of health workers getting infected around the time they were vaccinated.

“That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%,” Ramers said.

As for Matthew, he said that he’s been feeling better since exhibiting the symptoms last week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data showing that the vaccination efforts in the U.S. are moving slower than needed. It showed that just 2.1 million Americans received their first dose out of the 11.4 million shipped earlier this month.

The slow rollout of the program was said to blame and at the current rate, it may take almost 10 years to complete, according to a new report.

Health officials had promised over the past few months that “20 million Americans would receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2020 and 80 per cent of the total population would be vaccinated by late June.”