New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Stunned by COVID-19
UConn coach Geno Auriemma believes he is exhibiting no symptoms after testing positive for COVID-19 because he was recently vaccinated. Experts say he may be right.
Testing positive for COVID-19 just four days after receiving his second vaccine shot, Geno Auriemma was mystified.
After a year of testing, distancing, masking, and adhering to strict guidelines, Auriemma sits in his home with no symptoms — feeling great, he said. His conclusion? He may be a week from being fully vaccinated according to the CDC’s two-week timeline, but the inoculation is clearly working.
“If I hadn’t gotten the vaccine … I might be really, really, really sick,” Auriemma said.
He may be right, according to medical experts.
While it takes up to two weeks after the the second dose in a two-shot vaccination schedule for a person to be fully vaccinated, partial immunity can occur in the days after the first dose.
Dr. Craig Wilen, assistant professor of laboratory medicine and of immunobiology at Yale, said it is likely a patient will benefit to some degree from the vaccine after the first dose.
“The immune response to any vaccine usually happens within a week or two,” Wilen said. “That gives you some protection. When you get that second shot or that boost, your immune response kicks in way faster because you’ve already been exposed to it before.”
Wilen also points out, however, that clinical trials
show vaccines currently on the market prevent the extent of the disease and “whether your sick enough to go to the hospital or sick enough to seek medical attention. … (but) we actually don’t know if they prevented infection.”
So it may seem surprising that Auriemma was infected while the vaccine was in his system. But that vaccine likely helped keep him asymptomatic.
Michael Urban, a senior lecturer in the University of New Haven School of
Health Sciences, said studies estimate the first vaccine shot can decrease chances of a severe reaction to the virus by 50 percent.
“Even when you are fully vaccinated after you get the second shot and wait two weeks, — depending on which vaccine you get — you still have a 5-10 percent rate of still getting infected,” Urban said. “But again, if you’re still getting infected the chances are you’re not going to go to the hospital, you’re not going to be in the hospital, intubated, ventilated, stuff like that. You may feel sick for a week or two at the worst, but you can still go about your life.”
The state does not have a tally of infections among those vaccinated, but other state medical officials have heard of cases. Dr. Gregory Buller of Bridgeport Hospital echoed Urban’s point
that none of the vaccines are 100 percent effective even after people are fully vaccinated.
“Ninety-five percent is not 100 percent,” said Buller, associate chief medical officer and chair of the department of medicine.
Said Dr. Richard Martinello, medical director of Infection Prevention for Yale New Haven Hospital, “We certainly, among the patients we care for, see a small number of (vaccinated) patients who got sick with COVID.”
Auriemma, 66, received his second vaccine shot March 10, but understood the guidelines.
“They tell you,” Auriemma said. “This is going to take me a couple weeks. So don’t run around and think that you’re home safe.”
Auriemma was at practice Friday, wearing a mask and distancing. The team did not practice Saturday and his second test Sunday came back positive.
Based on contact tracing, UConn’s medical team does not believe anyone in the basketball program was exposed. The team traveled to Texas for the NCAA Tournament Tuesday.
Assuming Auriemma remains asymptomatic, he will join the team March 24. That will be 10 days after his positive test and two full weeks after his second vaccine injection.
Auriemma said Monday that he would take a third vaccine injection if it meant more protection. And he spoke of the need to continue to follow COVID guidelines, even after he is fully vaccinated.
As one of the most highprofile figures in the state, he could be used as an case study.
“Geno’s case is a great example,” Urban said. “You’re going to seeing people walking in restaurants, saying I’ve been vaccinated, I don’t have to wear masks. But you don’t know if the person next to you is high risk. … So this is a great example to say, continue to wear a mask right now even if you’re vaccinated.”