Mum has covid 4 weeks after vaccine

[Jj2431]

I'm clueless. My mum works for the NHS and had the jab a month ago but now has positive covid test. She's tired and lost sense of smell but so far doing ok. Does this mean the vaccine doesn't work or does it mean She's just unlikely to get very unwell with it? I'm so confused and worried and also feel hopeless about the vaccine now.

I think it lessens risk of hospitalisation.

Yes. My understanding is that it lessens the gravity.

Immunity is only at its maximum after both doses.
Hopefully having had one will be enough to make sure she isn’t too ill

Thank you

I wonder if she has one of the variants they're tryingntonsuppress.

No vaccine is 100% for any variant of it. Plus only 1 jab. I think it takes 3 weeks for any resistance to build after the vaccine.

I'm no expert but just guessing.

What crappy luck. I think they do say it can be less severe if vaccinated.

You can still test positive iirc

But lessens illness

Both my neighbour's, who are nurses, tested positive several weeks after being vaccinated. One was very poorly for 2 weeks the other had barely noticable symptoms. The one who was poorly is morbidly obese and thinks he would have been hospitalized without the vaccine. Its 67% effective with one dose. Your mum is in the 33% but is highly unlikely to be very unwell.

The vaccines give somewhere between 60 and 90% protection from the original and the Kent variant, which means for some people they don’t prevent disease. But the evidence so far also shows that those people who do get the virus are more likely to get it relatively mildly and won’t need hospital treatment.

This is not as good news as no Covid at all, but it’s not a disaster by any means.

Out of interest op, has she had covid before?

No vaccine gives 100% protection. Each year the seasonal flu jab gives about 60% protection.
The Covid vaccines require 2 jabs to over maximum protection - but still not 100%. It is hoped that the vaccine will protect us all from serious illness, but some people do not build up antibodies easily to specific viruses.
I cannot build up immunity with Rubella - and have had it 5 times in my life, and 3 vaccinations. Pretty scary when I was pregnant!
Our best hope is that both lockdown, and vaccination will reduce community transmitted cases to the point when Covid becomes a minimum threat to us all. That’s why anti-vaxxers are such a threat.

The data so far shows the vaccine protects against both the likelihood of getting the disease and the severity of it. But in both cases it only reduces the risk, not eliminates it.

@lightand not as far as we are aware

It has been clear right from the start that the vaccine will not stop you getting covid, nor will it stop you transmitting it. What it will do is lesson the symptoms so you should not need hospitalisation if you do get it

@Chloemol

It has been clear right from the start that the vaccine will not stop you getting covid, nor will it stop you transmitting it. What it will do is lesson the symptoms so you should not need hospitalisation if you do get it

This is right, no one has ever said that the vaccine stops you getting covid, that's why there's been all the discussion about the efficacy %age and how much comes from the first jab and how much from the second but no one must think it gets to 100%

@Chloemol

It has been clear right from the start that the vaccine will not stop you getting covid, nor will it stop you transmitting it. What it will do is lesson the symptoms so you should not need hospitalisation if you do get it

This is not quite the full picture. There is also evidence to suggest ‘viral load’ impacts both the likelihood of transmission and severity of symptoms. People (like OP’s DM) who are working on the frontline with seriously ill patients are more likely to become infected. When your body has some antibodies you body is more likely to be able to fight off the virus quickly, and you will have less of a viral load to pass on to others. This is why younger children are less likely to be vectors of severe infection, they don’t tend to get it so badly or she’d the virus so seriously.

For myself with Rubella (and inability to build longer time effective antibodies), I do tend to have longer periods each time when I don’t catch it and each infection has been less severe than the last.

*She’d = shed

When I had my first Pfizer vaccine on the 18th Dec I was told full immunity only develops 7-10 days after the second dose.

Even with full immunity it is still possible to contract the virus, but the risk of severe illness is reduced.

It doesn't stop you from getting it - I'm amazed people think it does

As far as I understand it 70% efficacy means that 70% will catch it but be symptomless. The remaining 30% will get some milder symptoms. Nobody hospitalised or dying.

Having the vaccine doesn’t mean you don’t catch it.

Can I ask which vaccine this was, please? Concerned about my mother who currently, post vaccine thinks she is immune.

It's rare, but it happens. The vaccine, if you've only had the first dose, which it takes 3 weeks to kick in, is only supposed to stop you getting it so severely.

Why does everyone think they should be immune. It’s flabbergasting, you need another dose 3 weeks after the first, then you must wait 12 weeks after that dose for full efficacy to Be achieved.

every single person I know that’s had one now thinks they are now invincible and are seemingly unaware there is a 2nd dose.

You don’t build up immunity until several weeks after vaccination. This combined with the fact that there is a latency period between infections and then symptoms and diagnosis means it isn’t at all surprising to get a positive covid result 4 weeks after vaccination.

@grannysbay

Can I ask which vaccine this was, please? Concerned about my mother who currently, post vaccine thinks she is immune.

It doesn’t matter which vaccine, they all work in similar ways and do NOT make you immune, just less likely to be seriously ill. Particularly important to realise you must continue socially distancing measures to protect those of us still in pretty vulnerable groups who are not yet eligible for vaccination.

Re “it doesn’t stop you getting it” - not quite true.

When someone is exposed to the virus, there are four possible outcomes:

1. Don’t become infected (a PCR test would be negative)
2. Become infected (PCR positive) but asymptomatic
3. Become infected, mild symptoms, managable at home
4. Become infected, severe symptoms, need hospital care

The endpoint of the Pfizer trial was symptomatic infection - the combination of 3 and 4. It was shown to greatly reduce 3 and eliminate 4. But of those who showed no symptoms, we don’t know whether they were uninfected (1) or asymptomatic (2).

AZ also PCR tested participants regularly after vaccination, and confirmed that as well as the reduction in 3 and elimination of 4, the likelihood of a positive PCR test was reduced by 67% compared to the control group. Ergo, vaccinated people were less likely to become infected when exposed to the virus. Although Pfizer didn’t do this test, it seems likely all vaccines would have a similar effect.

So, vaccines DO prevent people from catching Covid, just not everyone. Once vaccinated, you are less likely to catch Covid. This is good news, because if you don’t have the virus in your system, you can’t pass it on. Vaccines reduce transmission!!

They also reduce the severity of disease. In the trials, no-one who had the vaccines were hospitalised or died. It’s unlikely that this 100% protection will be maintained across the whole population, but the number of vaccinated people who die of Covid should be tiny - hurray!!

And some people - maybe 2/3 of people - are completely protected from becoming infected at all.

Please note that the definition of “mild” in the trials is “not requiring hospital care.” You can still be pretty bloody miserable and not require hospital care.