What if you are positive without knowing when getting vaccine?

[SandyStarfish]

If you were positive but asymptomatic, and you got your vaccine, could it be detrimental to your health?

I don't know if anyone knows, but it would quite likely be detrimental to the health of the staff at the vaccinating centre and other people getting the vaccine at the same time.

This happened to my husband.

He is tested routinely at work, on the same day he had his vaccination. He had been a bit bunged up but thought it was just a cold. A couple of days later I started coughing and went to get a test, which was positive. His test had vanished into the ether, so he had another, which was positive (by this stage we both had pronounced coughs and fatigue).

They do tell you not to have the vaccine within 28 days of a positive test. All I can tell you is that he has recovered well, even though it is clear in retrospect that he was positive when he went for the vaccine.

They took his temperature, which was normal, that was it.

It sounds alarming but I don't think it can matter too much or they'd take more preventative measures.

I'm a participant in the Novavax phase 3 trial and on the day of our first injection they took a blood sample (to look for antibodies), did a covid swab then gave the injection. If it mattered, they would factor in a delay and isolation period.

I wonder if it would work as well though. It must have happened a lot, that people were harbouring covid at the time of their jab I suppose, die to the sheer numbers of vaccinations, and the high incidence of covid.

@PuzzledObserver did your husband inform the GP or anyone that this had happened? Do they think the vaccine will work? Will he have his second jab as planned?

@SandyStarfish

He didn’t set out to inform anyone, no. I ended up calling 111 for him at one point because I thought his breathing was getting more laboured, and he told them as part of the call.

They didn’t comment about whether the vaccine would work, what makes you think it wouldn’t? As I see it, the vaccine presents a challenge to which your immune system responds, but it’s a challenge that can’t hurt you. If you worked in a Covid-ridden environment, you could encounter Covid again while already infected, if anything it would make your immune system work harder.

His original second appointment was cancelled in line with national policy and he hasn’t got a new one. But when he gets it, he will go. Why wouldn’t he?