A California nurse tested positive for COVID-19 just one week after receiving the Pfizer vaccine.
The nurse, identified as Matthew W., received the first dose of the vaccine on Dec. 18 and only experienced mild arm pain at the time.
Six days later, the 45-year-old began experiencing chills, muscle aches and fatigue, all of which are called coronavirus symptoms, according to a local ABC News station.
Matthew had been working a shift in his hospital’s COVID-19 unit the day he felt ill and subsequently did a virus test that confirmed it was positive, ABC News reported.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Christian Ramers, who works with Family Health Centers in San Diego, told ABC’s KGTV that no one is expected to be vaccinated against the virus. He explained that the vaccine takes some time to develop its protection against COVID-19.
“We know from clinical trials of the vaccine that it will take between 10 and 14 days to start developing protection against the vaccine,” Ramers told the newspaper.
Ramers added that the first dose of the vaccine does not provide complete protection against the virus alone.
“This first dose we believe provides you with about 50 percent and you need that second dose to get to 95 percent,” he said.
He went on to explain that it is possible that Matthew had contracted the virus before receiving this first shot on December 18th.
With the coronavirus incubation period lasting nearly 14 days, it may not have started to show symptoms until after the vaccine, ABC News reported.
“You feel like health professionals are very optimistic about it being the beginning of the end, but it will be a slow process, from weeks to months as we roll out the vaccine,” Ramers said.
The vaccine has begun to spread slowly across the United States, with many of the first lifeguards and health workers among the first to receive it.
Earlier this week, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received his first dose of vaccine and encouraged Americans to get his once available.
“She is OK. It happens very quickly. It’s safe, ”he said then.
“It’s literally about saving lives,” he added. “I trust the scientists, and it’s the scientists who created and approved this vaccine.”