Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) Tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, despite completing a full vaccination against the virus.
Lynch was tested positive for more than a week after taking the second of two doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, and days after his office learned that a staff member had tested positive. Although both of the vaccines approved for use in the United States are about 95 percent effective in preventing infections, experts have warned that even those who are vaccinated are at risk of becoming infected.
“This afternoon, U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch received a positive test result for COVID-19 after a staff member in the Congressman’s office in Boston tested positive earlier this week,” Molly Rose Tarpey, Lynch’s communications director, said in a statement. said a statement. “Congressman Lynch received the second dose of Pfizer vaccine and then received a negative COVID-19 test before attending President Biden’s inauguration.”
Tarpey added that Lynch “remains asymptomatic and feels good”, but will continue to be “self-quarantine and will vote in Congress in the coming weeks.” It is not clear when Lynch had the second dose of the vaccine, but the maximum immunity to the virus is reached at least one or two weeks after the approval of the approved vaccine. Pfizer said protection could be expected a week after the second dose. Tarpey refused Newsweek se request for further comments or details.
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A relatively small number of people who have been fully vaccinated still get COVID-19, although those who get the virus after vaccination are more likely to have a milder form of the disease. Only one case of severe COVID-19 was observed in a vaccinated person during Pfizer trials involving more than 43,000 participants. Receiving the vaccine cannot cause COVID-19 because it does not contain a virus that can infect a person.
Public health experts have stressed that those who have been fully vaccinated should not assume that they are immune and that they continue to take preventative measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance to protect themselves and others. Photos of Lynch in Congress and elsewhere in the days after the inauguration show him wearing a mask.
Another Democratic U.S. representative from Massachusetts, Lori Trahan, had tested positive for the virus just one day earlier. Francis Grubar, communications director of Trahan, said The Boston Globe that the congresswoman received the first of two doses of COVID-19 vaccine last week. Like Lynch, she is also said to be asymptomatic and is currently in quarantine with plans to remotely participate in House hearings and votes.