Doctors explain the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine after the nurse tests positive a few days after the first dose

SAN DIEGO, California – In Southern California, a nurse began showing symptoms of COVID-19 six days after the vaccine, then tested positive two days later.

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Experts say this takes time for antibodies to develop in your body.
“I have no problem putting needles in people as a doctor, I don’t particularly like putting needles in me,” said Dr. Amy Herold, chief medical officer at Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa, California.

He got the coronavirus vaccine just like thousands of others.

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As for what happened to the San Diego nurse, “I assume they are exposed right before they get the vaccine and still have no symptoms or even after,” Herold said.

“It is a sad coincidence that if someone has already been exposed and vaccinated, the vaccine does not work in a few days. I mean it works in a few days, but certainly not in less than a week,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado of at Stanford.

Doctors told our sister KGO-TV that the first vaccine gives 50% immunity, which does not start one week with the Pfizer vaccine and two weeks with the Moderna vaccine. The second dose then brings immunity to at least 90%.

While none of them are 100%, Herold said there is optimism in her hospital and she couldn’t help but smile when she received the vaccine.
“Under my mask, I have the biggest smile I finally get, because it feels like a hope right now and for all of us who care for COVID patients and are a bit stretched to the limit right now,” she said. “Having something to look forward to and hope for is a very powerful thing.”