MISSION VIEJO, California (KCAL / KCBS) – A California man contracted COVID-19 after receiving both doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Health experts warn that this may become more common due to the variants of the virus that have emerged.
Gary Michael was tested on Saturday for COVID-19 when he went to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, California, for an unrelated health problem. He later received a call from county health officials saying his test was positive.
“They told me that, yes, I am positive with coronavirus and analyzed my symptoms and the precautions of what I should do with regard to quarantine,” said Michael.
With the pandemic underway, none of this would be unusual, except for the fact that Michael received both doses of his COVID-19 vaccine. His first shot at Pfizer was on December 28, followed by a second on January 18.
Michael says his case is relatively small. His girlfriend who lived with him tested positive for COVID-19 five days after he received his second dose of the vaccine.
Dr. Tirso del Junco, medical director of seven Southern California hospitals, says he is not surprised by Michael’s story.
“I think I have heard of six or seven independent cases in the past three weeks of individuals who have been vaccinated at different times with positive tests and I think we will continue to see this more and more,” del Junco said.
These cases are part of the reason why doctors are encouraging people to continue wearing face masks, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not, especially due to the new variants of COVID-19 that are spreading in the community.
“We will really understand the effectiveness and how long these vaccines are effective, No. 1,” said del Junco. “No. 2, as soon as we started the vaccination program, that’s when we started hearing about these mutant strains. We have three aggressive mutant strains now that people keep talking, and that was long after we started the vaccination process.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clinical trials have shown that the Pfizer vaccine was “95% effective in preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 disease in people with no evidence of previous infection.”
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