OLD MISSION (CBSLA) – Monday marked three weeks since a man in Lake Forest received the second dose of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and one day after obtaining a positive COVID-19 test result.
Gary Michael, a man from Lake Forest, says he tested positive for COVID-19 weeks after receiving the second dose of vaccine. (CBSLA)
“Yesterday, I got a call from the Orange County Department of Health,” Gary Michael said. “They told me that, yes, I am positive for coronavirus and they went through my symptoms and precautions about what I should do in 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’m not, and it’s not the first I’ve heard of,” said Dr. Tirso del Junco Jr., chief physician at KPC Health. “I think we’ve heard of six or seven independent cases in the last three weeks of people who have been vaccinated with different terms that have been positive, 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 have urged people to keep their faces – whether they have been vaccinated or not – especially in light of the new COVID-19 variants spread in the community.
We will really understand the effectiveness and how long these vaccines are effective, number one, said del Junco. Number two, as soon as we started the vaccination program, we started hearing about these mutant strains. We have three aggressive mutant strains now that people keep talking about, and that’s a long time since we started this vaccination process. ”
As for Michael, he said his girlfriend at home tested positive for coronavirus five days after receiving the second dose and said his case was relatively minor.
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 without evidence of a previous infection.”