She got the vaccine, then she got COVID-19. Now she’s urging everyone to get inoculated.
Farrah Visey is a registered nurse and clinical department manager at Makati Medical Center. Despite being exposed to COVID-positive patients almost every day, she initially wasn’t keen on getting vaccinated. “Number one akong kontra diyan,” she shares.
She eventually changed her mind, thanks to thorough information campaigns on the merits of vaccinations spread to employees by MakatiMed’s Infection Prevention and Control Unit.
Visey, who got her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine two weeks after she completed rabies shots for a dog bite, received her second dose in June.
Months later, she got the virus.
Visey had what is known a breakthrough infection, which means getting COVID-19 even after being fully vaccinated.
Weren’t vaccines supposed to be the silver bullet against the coronavirus? Yes and no, say experts.
“The initial vaccines were developed to prevent the Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 strains,” explains Ma. Tarcela S. Gler, MD, an infectious diseases specialist at MakatiMed. “Breakthrough infections happen among vaccinated individuals who are exposed to new variants because the vaccines have lower efficacy to these variants.”
A breakthrough infection doesn’t mean that vaccines don’t work; rather, they prevent an individual from experiencing a more serious form of infection.
An August 2021 report of COVID-19 cases in MakatiMed confirms this. According to the report, unvaccinated patients outnumbered both fully and partially vaccinated patients with moderate, severe, and critical symptoms. Among the patients who expired while they were confined, 75 percent were unvaccinated.
“In MakatiMed, infections among healthcare workers who were vaccinated was 77 percent lower compared to those who were unvaccinated,” adds Dr. Gler.
Virus carrier
Despite being around COVID-positive patients, Visey didn’t get infected at the hospital. One Saturday in August, she went to the house of a 70-year-old aunt whose blood sugar had spiked to 500-600 mg/dl (the ideal range for a person with diabetes is between 80-130 mg/dl).
As she administered insulin, the aunt, who had her shot of the COVID-19 vaccine a week before, coughed on Visey’s face. The nurse was wearing a face mask, no face shield.
While the aunt was admitted at the hospital, she tested positive for COVID-19. Upon hearing the news, Visey knew she could have carried the virus in her home.
Her hunch proved right. The following day, her husband (who had his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine) developed a runny nose. His swab test result came out positive. A week later, Visey’s swab test came out positive as well, after manifesting a little cough and colds and loss of smell.
Given their mild symptoms, neither she nor her husband needed to be confined. Instead, they isolated themselves at home for the mandatory 10-day period, during which Visey’s husband was symptom-free after three days, as was she, though it took a while for her to regain her sense of smell.
While recovering, Visey admitted feeling a fear of death. “COVID is really frightening, and a lot of patients categorized as critical die.”
But the ordeal also made her understand the value of the vaccine. “Yes, it definitely helped,” she confirms. “When I was in isolation, I really appreciated the vaccine and thought that if I didn’t empower myself with knowledge about how vaccines work, I might have been one of those in the critical stage.”
Vaccine advocate
Since then, she’s become more mindful about observing minimum health and safety protocols. She keeps her mask on, washes her hands, practices social distancing, and takes her vitamin C with zinc religiously.
The once vaccine-hesitant Visey has also become a vaccine advocate. Recently, she convinced a co-worker to get jabbed; in turn, that colleague talked family members into availing of the vaccine program in their respective communities. “No one knows who can get COVID-19—even people who don’t go out get it,” she points out. “If you can get the vaccine now, get it.”
“Vaccines are still the best tool to prevent severe infections for COVID-19,” avers Dr. Gler. “Even if the vaccines have lesser efficacy to certain variants, they have been shown to have some activity. So, we need to push for vaccination for a certain mass of people, so we reach the herd immunity threshold.”