MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH) — Last week, Gillian Plummer was surprised to learn she had tested positive for COVID-19.
“It was more of a sinus infection symptoms and I lost my taste and my smell but they’re slowly coming back,” explained Plummer.
She was surprised by the positive test result because it was more than a month after getting her second dose of the vaccine.
“The day before I tested positive I ran 10.5 miles and I wasn’t exhausted and I didn’t feel out of it. I definitely felt off and I was sick,” said Plummer. “My body was fighting an infection but if it weren’t for the vaccine then I’m sure I would have been way sicker.”
The Middletown mother said she and her husband tested positive after their two little girls had become very sick and tested positive as well.
“They were pretty ill from COVID,” said Plummer. “Up to 105 fever for one of them, headaches, aches, and the pains.”
Doctors say the vaccine protects people against severe or deadly effects of the disease but they can contract COVID-19 even if vaccinated.
“Different vaccines may or may not be able to handle the different variants so we could see some breakthrough infections,” said Dr. Kevin Torres, DO, of Yale New Haven Health.
Still they seem to be less severe even in older people who have received the shot.
“They tend to come to the hospital and be discharged pretty quickly,” said Dr. Torres.
Another reason to be vigilant even if you are vaccinated is that if you do have COVID-19 and you’re not aware of it because your symptoms are so mild you may be contagious.
“Remember you’re wearing the mask for some protection to you but you’re really wearing so you’re not spreading the virus to others,” said Dr. Torres.
“I think that’s a message out there too that even if you do get the vaccine don’t go in public and ripping your mask off and thinking that you’re invincible because you’re not,” said Plummer.
But she says the vaccine did what it was supposed to and may be the reason she was able to go for a 14-mile run five days after she caught COVID-19.
NewsNation affiliate KHON asked a doctor at Queen’s Health Systems in Honolulu if there were studies to indicate who might be more likely to catch COVID-19 if vaccinated. There is not, unfortunately.
“The newest studies suggest that we have a higher protection for hospitalization so that even those that do get infected, it’s either a mild infection, as opposed to a severe or critical infection,” explained Dr. Julius Pham, Queen’s Health Systems COVID-19 committee chair.