Vaccinated describe their breakthrough experience
They got the shot, thought they were immune, were still infected by COVID-19
For those who rushed out to get vaccines, growing reports of breakthrough COVID-19 infections can feel like a betrayal.
They did everything right.
They’re supposed to be safe.
But the startling news doesn’t mean vaccines don’t work. As interviews with Bay Area residents reveal, vaccines transformed a potentially deadly illness into something that’s just lousy.
“If I hadn’t been vaccinated, who knows?” said Oakland’s Jodi Durst, a professional musician, sickened while traveling.
She credits her Pfizer/BioN
Tech shots for her quick recovery.
“There are those stories of healthy people who have had really horrible outcomes,” she said.
For a few sweet months this summer, a COVID19-free future seemed within reach. People breathed freely, shared drinks, swapped stories and savored the smiles of friends.
So the discovery of infections in vaccinated people, driven by the highly infectious delta variant, has been deeply unsettling.
Diane Morissette invited guests to a small barbecue, not aware that some were unvaccinated. Carter Gibson was exposed at a festive outdoor birthday party. On a cherished vacation to Las Vegas, Jeanne Krieg noticed the nachos, Bloody Marys and steak had no taste. Hugh MacDiarmid assumed he was safe by carefully masking on a trip to Carmel and Monterey. All were vaccinated. All got sick.
Their stories are a glimpse of what could be our new normal, an annoyance we’ll learn to live with.
“You’re not hospitalized. You’re not dying,” said El Camino Health’s Dr. Daniel Shin, the infectious disease specialist who helped treat the first confirmed case of community-spread COVID-19 in the Bay Area. “You’re sitting at home, just waiting it out, to recover.”
Five people describe their breakthrough experiences, and their gratitude for vaccines that spared them a far worse fate. Their stories have been edited and condensed.
Jeanne Krieg, 66, CEO for a transportation company, Moderna
“In June, my husband and I were with another couple, headed to Las Vegas for vacation. We stay at the MGM — they have a cool
lazy river that we love. We get floaties and float around the river all day. We were all vaccinated and we’ve been very careful about masking, not doing anything or going anywhere.
“At the Oakland Airport, I noticed the jalapeños on our nachos were really bland. At the hotel, we get Bloody Marys every morning and I’m thinking: ‘These are not that great.’ For dinner, we go to the Golden Steer Steakhouse. I was thinking: ‘This must be an off night.’ It was tasteless to me.
“I always come home with a slight cough when I’m on an airplane. Always. When we got back, I started coughing a little. But things just seemed weird. So I called Kaiser and they brought me in.
“The lost taste and smell came back gradually. There was absolutely nothing else.
“It’s a puzzle. No one I’ve worked with, no one I socialize with, no one I have any contact with has been symptomatic and tested.
“I thought for sure my husband would get it. He and the other couple went in to get tested and they’re all negative.
“I’m very glad that I had the vaccine. I’m in that age group that could have been very serious if I had gotten
ill. Now I feel like a super person! I have the antibodies from the infection and the vaccination.”
Carter Gibson, 31, program manager at Google, Pfizer
“We went to a friend’s birthday party at The Midway in San Francisco’s Dogpatch on a Saturday. It was a 100-person event — all outside, except for the bathrooms. We just had a really good time. We’re dancing, we’re partying, we’re having a few drinks.
“Then on Monday, I woke up with a little sore throat. I thought ‘Oh, that’s weird. Maybe I’m starting to get a cold.’ On Tuesday, I was super fatigued. My partner had a cough. And that’s when I was like: ‘OK. This is COVID.’ It ended up that 11 of the 25 of us in our group caught it. Everyone was vaccinated.
“We had talked about our risk tolerance ahead of time. We knew that if we were going out, we might get this new variant. Were we comfortable with that? And we were. So there wasn’t anger or sadness. It was more like Oh well. OK, we knew this could happen.’
“It felt like a cold-flu hybrid. I had a really sore throat for five days. I had a
light fever. I was congested. The muscle fatigue is real. The brain fog — that’s real. We just sat on the sofa with the dogs and watched TV. It lasted for exactly 10 days, with ups and downs. Both of us immediately recognized how much worse it could have been without the vaccine. I genuinely believe that it muted our symptoms.
“The most important thing you can do is get vaccinated and not put others at risk. Understand your own risk tolerance as well. Chances are you’ll be OK. You’ll just feel bad for a while like we did.”
Hugh MacDiarmid, 81, retired senior administrator, Pfizer
“After July 4th, we went down to Carmel. But we were careful. At the Monterey Aquarium, we were masked. We didn’t stand in line. The only time we weren’t masked was when we talked to the person at the hotel. At home, when we go to lunch, we insist on eating outside. I wear a mask at the gym.
“So we have no idea. None whatsoever.
“I thought that I had a cold. It started off with a cough. The runny nose and the body aches came second. The headaches were minor, mostly in the sinus area. My cough was strange. It was a deep cough and it lasted for three or four days.
“I was a little bit shocked. I thought I was safe. There is no way that I could imagine
that I had this breakthrough thing. I was extremely worried. I thought it was a death sentence. I was very worried about having the disease settle in my lungs.
“My wife is fine. It’s crazy because you would think she would have gotten it.
“It turned out fine. It lasted about nine days. Having the shots first probably saved my life. My recovery was pretty quick. I can’t emphasize enough the value of the shots.”
Jodi Durst, 47, professional upright and electric bassist and music instructor, Pfizer
“I’m definitely certain that I was exposed somewhere in New York. We stayed with my girlfriend’s brother in Brooklyn, who’s vaccinated; he’s a bartender. Most of the bars in New York right now really aren’t that crowded. People are masking; it’s the honor system. I was trying to wear a mask when I went into the bathroom, but maybe I wasn’t completely perfect doing that.
“We went to a restaurant where we were able to sit outside. And then I started sneezing. Then the next day, I started getting watery eyes and a runny nose. I thought it was allergies. On the plane, we bought some breakfast and I couldn’t taste the bagel or the avocado. That’s when I knew.
“By the time I got home, I had some fatigue … and I had a headache. There was congestion. And then I had a dry cough for a couple of days. The symptoms were like a mild flu. I wasn’t completely incapacitated. But for two days, I stayed in bed.
“Of the people nearest me — my girlfriend and her brother — neither of them tested positive. And of the other friends, not one of them fell ill. All are vaccinated.
“I am very grateful for the vaccine. It worked!”
Diane Morissette, 61, retired Kaiser Permanente executive, Moderna
“After being so very careful, mainly to protect my older husband who has risk factors, it felt so good to be around others again. We held a barbecue at our place where we hosted about a dozen people. We were all outside most of the time, only coming inside into our living room for dessert — and a ceiling fan was going.
“Four days later, I started developing what felt like allergies. And then because I had a runny nose and a sore throat, I thought it was just the common cold. I was tired and I had a headache. When talking, every word hurt. The next morning, we got a group text from our friends that they have COVID and how very sorry they were to have exposed all of us. I didn’t know they were unvaccinated.
“On Monday, I got my results back. I reread the results in disbelief. Then I realized I had lost my sense of smell. I stuck my favorite perfume right up to my nostril and there was nothing. My husband also was tested, and his results were negative. I put myself in quarantine.
“I started feeling incrementally better after about five days. It’s now two weeks since that barbecue and I am nearly 100%, with just a bit of a lingering cough.
“I’m so thankful for the vaccine. It’s the difference between night and day. It made a huge difference.”