A "Breakthrough" story. Are there others?

The Quarantine Zone
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In case anyone is interested in a first-person bit of anecdata, I’m currently on day 6 of a “breakthrough” covid infection. Maybe others can share, too? I’m finding the reporting about these infections to be sensationalist and misleading, in most cases. I don’t think that’s helpful! Anecdotes probably aren’t that helpful, either, but it’s what i’ve got to share! :grinning:

I’m fully vaccinated (second shot of Moderna was 2/28). I’m 59 years old, do have diabetes and asthma, and yes, I’m overweight. I live in an area where vaccinate rates are pretty high, but so are transmission rates (and 90% or so of that is Delta).

Earlier this month, my daughter (25 years old, also fully vaccinated) found out that her roommate had been to a party where everyone was supposed to be vaccinated, but (unexpectedly) an unvaccinated person attended, and the roommate was in a car with this person. My daughter’s roommate had some cold symptoms, got tested, and was positive. My daughter got tested and was negative (and had no symptoms) so she came home to our house to avoid sharing the apartment (and single bathroom) with her roommate.

That was on a Wednesday. By Monday of the next week, she began to have some symptoms (congestion, dry cough, low fever) and got tested. This time it was positive. We tried to isolate as best we could from each other (and 100% from the outside world) but within three days, I had the symptoms and was positive, and 5-6 days after that, the same went for my wife.

But here’s the good news from these three (four, including the roommate) breakthrough cases. For all of us, we’ve had the first 1-2 days feeling pretty crappy. About like a bad cold, or mild flu. Nothing at all like a bad flu. Then progressively better every day after that. 7-10 days to feeling totally normal. My daughter and her roommate are fully normal now, working and functioning, completely over it. I’m close. My wife is just starting her journey, but already past the worst day.

Speaking only for myself, I had an uncomfortable night, a day when I felt like crap, and since then it’s been like a cold, and not even a bad cold. And progressively better each day.

The loss of smell and taste (which happened very suddenly on day three for me) is weird. But my daughter has hers back, so I expect I will, too.

Have others have other breakthrough experiences? I hope not worse! This has been quite manageable and acceptable and I’m SO glad to have been vaccinated. Even when I felt at my worst, I wasn’t scared.

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Thank you for sharing that!

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My colleague had a breakthrough case - double jabbed (Pfizer), only in his mid 20s but he’s clinically vulnerable, so had been vaccinated earlier in the year.

He had fairly bad flu systems (although he’s a bit of a drama-monger/moaner so it wouldn’t surprise me if someone else would say they didn’t feel too bad), and was ill for about five days. Recovered well but his sense of taste took a week or so longer to come back.

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A friend of mine had an almost identical experience to you. He felt like he had a bad cold for 2 days, felt not great but not awful for a few days after that, and was essentially normal in just under a week. His worst symptoms were a fever for a day and bad congestion. He felt tired but not exhausted.

He too lost his sense of smell. It started coming back around day 10 and was totally back in another week.

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I’ve mentioned this case before on the board, but a co-worker’s wife had a breakthrough case. They have two under-12 children and one of them started developing symptoms. They had both kids tested and turns out both were infected, with the other being asymptomatic. Since they were both vaccinated they did not bother getting tested at the time, my co-worker was already not coming to work to quarantine per my employer’s decree and the wife was furloughed. A couple of days later the wife cooked some decidedly odd-tasting food and after it being remarked on, she suddenly realized she had lost her sense of taste and smell (I think she had over-spiced the food while cooking because she wasn’t getting anything tasting it). Then they both got tested and she was positive, he was not. He never tested positive and eventually returned to work, no harm no foul. She gradually regained her senses, but it took awhile.

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Does anyone read James Lileks’s daily blog, The Bleat? He’s vaccinated, and had been scheduled to fly to England to visit friends, and was doing everything by the book. He went to the airport to get tested a couple of days before the flight, and discovered he had Covid, though he feels fine. He had to cancel his flights, and he and wife and daughter had to unpack their bags. He’s quarantining in his house and backyard.

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I used to read Lileks’ blog regularly – I’m sorry to hear that his trip got disrupted due to it.

A friend of mine had a very similar thing happen to her. A few months ago, she was in the process of moving from Alaska to Germany for a new job, and was fully vaccinated. She took a COVID test before leaving Alaska, and got as far as Atlanta. Before she was able to get onto the flight to Germany, the results of the COVID test finally came back, positive, and she wasn’t allowed on the plane.

She felt like she had a bad cold for about a day, and then was fine after that, but it took a week before she tested negative, and was able to finally finish her journey.

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My grandparents’ neighbor, around 70 and with both shots of either Moderna of Pfizer, caught COVID from her grandkids who got it in school and passed away.

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The vaccinated neighbor passed away?

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My Aunt-in-Law had to be tested before she got a biopsy and it came back positive. No symptoms so far. Her sister (my MIL) had a cough for about a week and my FIL had a slight fever for a day or two. They never got tested though. These people run around (near OKC) like there’s no pandemic so this is no surprise.

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Yes, the neighbor, not the grandkid. Sorry for the misunderstanding

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Seriously thank you for posting. I know it must be scary, but we’re glad to know you’re recovering.

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If you don’t mind sharing, did anybody in the house wear masks during this timeframe?

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If it’s the delta variant and you’re indoors for an extended period of time with an infected person, masks will lower the viral load, but you’ll probably get infected. The viral load is just so incredibly high that it makes transmission an extremely high possibility.

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Moderna in March, hubs got original COVID a couple of months ago.

Last week, I thought something might be wrong. I wasn’t very sick, I felt like I had a summer cold (remember those?), but got tested. Yep, positive. Hubs was depending on his natural immunity and is also positive.

I didn’t really feel bad at any point, if I was still working, I wouldn’t have wasted sick days by staying home.

Yesterday’s test said I got better.

Hubs is still sneezing, fatigued, feverish and can’t do math in his head. His test says he’s still sick.

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Do you mean your test is now negative?

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I hope it’s helpful! I know that when I was looking around, I didn’t find many first person accounts (other than the very scary ones). One of the big advantages (to me) of being vaccinated is that I’m not terrified that I will be in the ICU soon, or dead. Before getting vaccinated I was scared every time I coughed or sneezed.

I don’t mind! It’s an important question!

When my daughter first came home, she had tested negative, and had no symptoms, and we were all vaccinated, so we assumed that everything was fine and nobody in the house wore masks.

Then when she started to have symptoms we at first thought it was allergies (since she had tested negative a few days before) so still nobody wore masks in the house. Then the next day when it was worse and she tested positive, we figured (fatalistically, maybe stupidly) that the horse was out of the barn and if we were going to get it, we already had it and there wasn’t any point to masks at that time. We did try to minimize contact with her, but not very rigorously.

If we had masked up and isolated her rigorously as soon as she tested positive, would that have prevented us getting infected? Maybe? I don’t know, but it does seem very clear that in her case, infection happened before any symptoms and before a positive test. And we were definitely exposed to her when she was asymptomatic and not yet testing positive.

One thing–the rapid test can show negative after symptoms have gone, and it’s safe (according to our health department) to go back to work in person and stop isolating. But the PCR test can stay positive for months after an infection, long after you’re all better and no longer contagious at all. The testing centers near us, once you’ve tested positive on a PCR, won’t even give you another PCR test for 90 days. It will just be positive and not mean a thing, they say.

I thought of two other things I wanted to add. The first is a symptom that I haven’t heard reported before. My wife, daughter, and I all experienced this in slightly different ways.

The first night that the virus was really taking hold, from about 2-4 in the morning, I was seized with an inexplicable anxiety or dread. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t read, I couldn’t play solitaire or watch TV (all things that usually help with insomina, for me). Walking around helped a little. It was incredibly uncomfortable. My heart wasn’t beating fast, my symptoms were not bad at all, I couldn’t think of anything that was bothering me or that I was scared of. I don’t think it was actually an anxiety attack (I don’t think i’ve really ever experienced one before, so maybe it was). But it felt terrible.

I was literally watching the clock and counting minutes, “maybe it will be better by 3:05. maybe by 3:10.” Finally I took a xanax and that made it possible to get to sleep. It was one of the most unusual and unpleasant feelings I’ve had, and very hard to describe. My wife and daughter experienced it somewhat differently, but both of them reported a period of several hours in the first night of pretty strong mental/emotional distress, unrelated to any symptoms.

I also wonder if, now, having had the vaccination, and covid itself, I will be even a little bit “extra” protected from future infection (at least from this variant). And if so, for how long? And how does this affect the need/recommendation for a booster? Was this infection the equivalent of a booster? Or unrelated? I guess that’s something that is pretty much unknown at this point.

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This is what I call an anxiety attack. I have them a lot and have had them my whole life. My heartbeat doesn’t increase or anything, I just have an overwhelming feeling of dread that I can neither talk myself out of nor distract myself from.

I’m curious. How did you happen to have xanax on hand? What dosage did you take (what color was the pill?)?

I always have them around and have for the last 40+ years, but only take one (.5 mg - orange pill) when I have that “overwhelming feeling of dread.” In fact, I might take one in a little while.

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Just as a counterpoint. Not me. Vaccinated in March (Pfizer). Tested 3x since then, all negative. No symptoms. Two airplane trips since then, and masks in Texas are not common where I live.

Relatedly, is there a good way to speak to someone (unvaccinated) that says x, y, z all had vaccines and got Covid so…(literally it ends with “so”). I mean, that’s not the real reason, just the latest thing to say to have some cover and not be labeled “anti-vax”. I’ve given up trying to persuade with facts/logically. The one employee I did persuade was by (pretending) not to - just said after I got my shots I didn’t feel any side effects but pretended I did and took two paid days off work. She was younger, her eyes lit up - that’s what tilted her to get the vaccine / made her feel good about getting.

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A few years ago my wife had to do a lot of international travel for work, and was having some powerful anxiety about airplane travel (after one very bad experience), and wanted to just sleep through the flights. Our GP prescribed the xanax for her (.5 mg). She used it a few times and we still had them around. I have to say it was very effective.

I’m sorry to hear you (or anyone) has that feeling on a regular basis (or ever). It was terrible!