Allan Massie is an epidemiologist and biomedical researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. The scientist thinks he knows about the coronavirus. He got himself fully vaccinated months ago. Massie recently attended a party. The total of 15 partygoers made sure in advance that everyone was vaccinated. Five days later, Massie developed Covid symptoms. He went to the doctor: “That shouldn’t happen,” he wrote afterwards in a field report in the local “Baltimore Sun”. “I’ve been fully vaccinated for months.”
Massie takes his experience as an opportunity to warn others. He thought he was immune. The hostess felt nauseous the day after the party and tested positive for the virus. Massie wasn’t worried: “I figured I’d stay home and isolate myself from my family for a few days and that’s it. And even that seemed too much of a good thing to me. ” Then he heard that other people at the party got sick. Then a few more: “11 of the 15 people have now tested positive for Covid.”
“I don’t wish that to anyone”
“Fortunately, none of us seem to be seriously ill,” continues Massie. “If people who are fully vaccinated suffer from what is known as a ‘breakthrough infection’, they usually do not develop a serious illness that requires hospitalization.” He assumes that this is also the case with him and his friends. “But I can tell you that even a ‘mild’ case of Covid-19 is pretty miserable. I had a fever, chills, and muscle pain, and I was so weak that I could barely get out of bed. I don’t wish that to anyone. “
But he got the vaccine, he thought, the fight against Covid was over for him. As much as he hated the fact that he and his fully vaccinated friends were sick, the “little outbreak” made him think about what those vaccine breakthroughs “mean to the rest of us.”
The pandemic is not over for those who have been vaccinated
“Covid-19 vaccines have an enormous effect,” assures Massie. He assumed a mild course of the disease because he was vaccinated. But Covid is not over yet, not even for the vaccinated. As the pandemic evolves, we need to evolve with it. “
The epidemiologist is calling on health authorities to collect and report more and better data on vaccination breakthroughs. Everyone in the group could obviously have infected other vaccinated people: “It is not clear whether we fell ill because of a particularly virulent variant, because the vaccine is waning or for some other reason. Without good data we will never find out. “
Massie also advises that fully vaccinated people who have been exposed to Covid should be isolated and tested at home. In addition, the pharmaceutical industry should give priority to research into booster vaccines. (kes)