MISSION VIEJO (CBSLA) Monday it was three weeks since a Lake Forest man received his second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and a day since he got a positive COVID-19 test result.
Gary Michael, a Lake Forest man, says he tested positive for COVID-19 weeks after receiving his second vaccination dose. (CBSLA)
“Yesterday I got a call from the Orange County Health Department,” said Gary Michael. “They told me that, yes, I am positive about the coronavirus, and they have gone through my symptoms and the precautions of what I should be doing as far as quarantining.”
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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 might be surprised by this man’s story, this patient’s story, it’s not me, and it’s not the first I’ve heard of,” said Dr. Tirso del Junco Jr., KPC Health’s chief medical officer. “I think in the past three weeks I’ve heard of six or seven independent cases of people vaccinated with different timelines who tested positive, and I think we’ll continue to see that more and more.”
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These cases are why doctors like del Junco are urging people to keep their face coverings on – whether vaccinated or not – especially in light of new COVID-19 variants spreading in the community.
“We’re really going to 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 now have three aggressive mutant strains that people keep talking about, and it’s been a long time since we started this vaccination process. “
As for Michael, he said his live-in girlfriend tested positive for coronavirus five days after receiving his second dose and said his case was relatively small.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clinical studies showed that the Pfizer vaccine was “95% effective in preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 disease in humans with no evidence of previous infection.”