Emergency doctor receives COVID-19 nine days after vaccination

• Josh Mugele, an emergency physician in Georgia, tested positive for the new coronavirus on Tuesday.
• Mugele received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech nine days earlier.
• Mugele’s COVID-19 infection is not a sign that the injection did not work.
• The vaccine requires two injections to be fully effective. It may also take a few weeks for vaccinated people to develop immunity, so it is important to continue to wear masks and maintain social distance after taking the vaccines.
• “It was pure luck,” said Mugele. “It turns out that I was exposed a few days after receiving the vaccine, but this is still the best tool we have to fight the virus”.
• Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

Josh Mugele worked the Christmas night shift. Although he had seen coronavirus patients since the pandemic began, his hospital in Georgia was packed as never before. However, there was little consolation: Mugele had received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech on December 20.

“I have had three consecutive shifts until the vaccine date,” Mugele, an emergency room physician at the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Georgia, told Business Insider. “I was very nervous about the possibility of being exposed before that. Honestly, I felt a sense of relief when, on the 20th, I got the vaccine and thought I had crossed the finish line.”

Josh Mugele

Then, on Monday, he had a headache and cough. The next day, he tested positive for coronavirus.

“I was scared at first, but most of all I think I was angry,” said Mugele. “I had maximum exposure, as much as any emergency doctor in the country, and I was spared for 10 months, and then getting it right after receiving the vaccine is just stupid and frustrating.”

Pfizer vaccine administered in 2 injections 21 days apart

Mugele always knew that there was a chance of getting sick after the first dose.

The vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech is administered in two injections 21 days apart. The two-dose regimen was found to be 95% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, but a single dose provided much less protection. That is why it is essential that recipients of the vaccine return for a second injection.

Read More: Primary care clinics hope to play a large role in vaccinating Americans, but some do not know when they will receive coronavirus vaccines. 3 large chains show how they are preparing, despite little information.

It is also not known whether the vaccine completely prevents infection, and it can take up to a few weeks after vaccination for the body to develop immunity in the form of antibodies to the virus.

“Those first eight days are really critical,” said Mugele. “People still need to be absolutely isolated. They have to wear the mask, they have to wash their hands, they have to avoid going out before receiving the benefit of the vaccine.”

Paul Bersebach / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register / Getty Images

‘That was pure luck’

Mugele said he still plans to receive his second dose on Jan. 12, assuming his symptoms have disappeared for about a week before. He also emphasized that his infection was not a sign of anything wrong with the vaccine.

“It was pure luck,” he said. “It turns out that I was exposed a few days after receiving the vaccine, but this is still the best tool we have to fight the virus”.

As an emergency room physician, Mugele also had a higher risk of infection than many Americans, especially since his hospital is packed with coronavirus patients.

“Our hospital is very similar to any other hospital in the country,” he said. “We have higher volumes than we have ever had.”

The launch of the vaccine in the USA is going slowly

The number of coronavirus hospitalizations in the U.S. has tripled in the past two months, reaching a peak of almost 125,000 on Tuesday. Mugele said he felt sad that another doctor had to cover his shift during this critical period.

“The changes today are very, very difficult,” he said. “We are seeing people in non-ideal conditions, like in the hall or in the waiting room, so it is a stressful, stressful work environment. Everyone is already exhausted.”

Although vaccines are still the fastest way to stop the pandemic, the implementation of immunization in the United States has been painfully slow compared to what federal authorities had predicted. Earlier this month, the Trump administration predicted that 20 million Americans would receive a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. The United States has shipped about 14 million doses so far, but only about 2.6 million people have received their first injections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

“It is very important that until we have widespread vaccination rates across the country, even if you have both doses of the vaccine, you still need to be careful,” said Mugele. “You still have to wear your mask in public, and you still have to avoid big meetings, and you still have to wash your hands. We’re still in the middle of this thing.”