She was shot out of luck.
A Brooklyn woman who avoided capturing COVID-19 throughout 2020 went down with the bug this month – three weeks after she was vaccinated.
Ashley Allen, 31, spoke to The Post by telephone while being quarantined in her Williamsburg apartment and in between calls from the city’s contact detectives.
The contact detectives started asking me questions about what I did three weeks ago, Allen said. “And I said I was vaccinated.”
Allen was delighted when she was able to make an appointment for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the Javits Center on March 10.
The expansive conference room had just received new vaccines and beat New Yorkers around the clock – Allen’s appointment was at 2 p.m. As a wine and beverage distributor, she was able to find a coveted early spot, even while the vaccines for most new ones were not available. Yorkers. Although she developed a brief fever the next day, her side effects resolved quickly.
Even after Allen was vaccinated, she was careful to always mask outside and wash her hands regularly.
“On Wednesday, March 31, I felt like a scratch, a tickle in my throat. It was super dry, ”she recalls. ‘Then I kept having this dry cough. It felt like I had allergies. ‘
As her cough continues, the debilitating fatigue begins.
“It started to get really bad, up to the point where I was going to City MD,” she said. ‘I thought I had Lyme disease. I spend a lot of time in the state. ”
But a rapid coronavirus test on April 4, plus a second rapid test on April 5, showed COVID. A PCR test, which is more accurate, confirmed this.
The City MD employee “asked when do you get your vaccination? “And I said on March 10, and she was just as shocked,” Allen said.
Allen’s case is rare, experts say, but not unheard of.
‘The vaccine does not necessarily prevent you from getting COVID. It prevents you from being admitted to the hospital or dying from it, ‘said dr. Kris Bungay, a primary medicine in Manhattan, told The Post. “That’s why we all need to be careful.”
“It was not common in clinical trials that patients were symptomatic after being vaccinated.” Bungay added.
The two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer are 94% and 95% effective, respectively, in preventing new coronavirus infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control. And while more convenient, the single-and-graft Johnson & Johnson vaccine offers only 66% protection.
Sporadic cases of post-vaccination atrocities have surfaced in local news across the country, but it remains unclear how many people came down with COVID after receiving the shots, known as a ‘vaccine breakthrough’.
“Although there are anecdotal reports of New Yorkers who had a positive COVID test 14 or more days after receiving their last vaccine dose, DOH is further investigating these cases to determine if they meet the formal CDC definition of the breakthrough. vaccine compliant, “Jill Montag, a health department spokeswoman, told The Post.
While Allen is recovering, she can not determine where she was exposed. “Not a single idea,” she said. “If I had to take a wild guess, and still wasn’t sure, I think Target. At Atlantic Terminal, in the elevator. ”