MISSION VIEJO (CBSLA) – Monday marked three weeks since a Lake Forest man received his second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and one day since he tested positive for the COVID-19 test.
Gary Michael, a man from Lake Forest, says he tested positive for COVID-19 weeks after receiving his second dose of vaccine. (CBSLA)
“Yesterday, I got a call from the Orange County Health Department,” said Gary Michael. “They told me that, yes, I am positive for coronavirus and analyzed my symptoms and the precautions of what I should do with regard to quarantine.”
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Michael was tested for the virus when he went to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo on Saturday for an unrelated health problem.
“You may be surprised by this man’s story, this patient’s story, I am not, and it is not the first I have heard of,” said Dr. Tirso del Junco Jr., medical director at KPC Health. “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 results and I think we will continue to see that more and more.”
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These cases are the reason why doctors like Del Junco ask people to keep their facial coverings – vaccinated or not – especially in light of 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, number one,” said del Junco. “Second, as soon as we started the vaccination program, we started to hear about these mutant strains. We have three aggressive mutant strains now that people are still talking about, and that was long after we started the vaccination process. “
As for Michael, he said his girlfriend who lived with her tested positive for coronavirus five days after he received his second dose and said his case was relatively small.
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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”