A Brooklyn man found out on Monday that he tested positive for the coronavirus – more than two weeks after getting a jab.
Matthew Sambolin, 39, told The Post that although he opted for the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine because it was ‘convenient’, now that he’d rather get the Pfizer or Moderna shot.
‘The risk was there, I was willing to take it. Now I wish I had made a different decision, ‘he said in a call from the spare room of his Bath Beach home, where he is currently in quarantine.
Sambolin said he experienced minor symptoms, including mild cough and fatigue.
While a rapid test he took on Saturday was negative, a PCR test, which is more accurate, was positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, according to the documentation he provided.
“It was a shock,” Sambolin said on Monday about his positive test.
An operations manager of two local radio stations, Sambolin, said he had “no ambivalence” about the COVID vaccine and that he was looking forward to getting it.
“I wanted to help boost the herd’s immunity,” he said.
Sambolin also said he finds it important to be vaccinated to keep his young daughter Nora, who is nearly two, safe and for the sake of the employees he manages.
He received the shot on March 24 at the NYPD Community Center in Eastern New York, according to his vaccine card.
Sambolin wanted to stab the J&J because he wanted to be vaccinated when he drove to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that weekend.
Sambolin believes he was exposed to the virus by an employee who later tested positive for COVID.
During the pandemic, Sambolin says he has taken all the recommended precautions, including masking and social distance, and that he has not been with public transportation for more than a year, although he still goes to the office.
After finding out on Saturday that his colleague had come down with the error, Sambolin and his wife were tested at their local CityMD. Both her rapid test and PCR were negative.
Sambolin said he decided to tell his story after seeing other coverage from people who got the J&J jab and then came down with COVID, including The Post’s stories about a Brooklyn woman who was three weeks old after her vaccination tested positive, and a New Jersey man admitted to the hospital. with the virus five weeks after his shot.
Sporadic cases of horror stories after vaccination have surfaced in local news across the country. Health experts say that although vaccinated people can still catch the bug, the probability of this happening is much lower than in people who are not vaccinated.
‘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 care physician in Manhattan, told The Post earlier. “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 symptomatic coronavirus infections after two doses, according to the CDC. The single-dose J&J vaccine offers only 66% protection.
Sambolin said he hopes more people will consider the data before being shot.
“I still think being vaccinated is still definitely the way to get herd immunity,” he said, but “I hope they consider it to really weigh the different efficiencies.”
