Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

An emergency-room doctor tested positive for coronavirus 9 days after getting vaccinated. That's not a sign the vaccine didn't work.

An emergency-room doctor tested positive for coronavirus 9 days after getting vaccinated. That's not a sign the vaccine didn't work.

Coronavirus vaccines require two shots to be fully effective, and it can take up to a few weeks for vaccinated people to develop immunity.

Josh Mugele worked the night shift on Christmas. Though he had been tending to coronavirus patients since the start of the pandemic, his Georgia hospital was stretched to capacity like never before. There was one small comfort, though: Mugele had received the first dose of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine on December 20.

"I had three shifts in a row right up to the vaccine date," Mugele, an emergency-room doctor at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Georgia, told Business Insider. "I was just really nervous I was going to get exposed before that. I honestly felt really a sense of relief when, on the 20th, I actually was able to get the vaccine, and I thought I'd kind of crossed the finish line."

Then on Monday, he came down with a headache and a cough. The following day, he tested positive for the coronavirus.

"I was scared at first, but more than anything I think I was angry," Mugele said. "I've had maximum exposure, as much as any ER doc in the country, and I've been spared for 10 months, and then to get it right after I got the vaccine is just stupid and frustrating."

Pfizer vaccine given as 2 injections 21 days apart


Mugele always knew there was a chance of getting sick after his first dose.

Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine is given as two injections 21 days apart. The two-dose regimen was found to be 95% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19, but a single dose provided a lot less protection. That's why it's imperative for vaccine recipients to return for a second shot.

It's also unknown whether the vaccine prevents infection altogether, and it can take up to a few weeks postvaccination for the body to develop immunity in the form of antibodies against the virus.

"That first eight days is really critical," Mugele said. "People still have to be absolutely isolated. They have to wear their mask, they have to wash their hands, they have to avoid going out before they get the benefit of the vaccine."


Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, California, administering its first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on December 17.


'This was just dumb luck'


Mugele said he still planned on getting his second dose on January 12, assuming his symptoms have disappeared for about a week beforehand. He also stressed that his infection wasn't a sign of anything wrong with the vaccine.

"This was just dumb luck," he said. "I happened to be exposed within a few days of getting the vaccine, but this still is the best tool we have for fighting the virus."

As an emergency-room doctor, Mugele also had a higher risk of infection than many Americans, especially because his hospital is filling with coronavirus patients.

"Our hospital's pretty much like every other hospital in the country," he said. "We have higher volumes than we've ever had."

The US vaccine rollout is going slowly


The number of US coronavirus hospitalizations has tripled over the past two months, reaching a peak of nearly 125,000 on Tuesday. Mugele said he felt sorrow that another doctor would have to cover his shift during this critical time.

"The shifts these days are really, really hard," he said. "We're seeing people in nonideal conditions, like in the hallway or the waiting room, so it's a stressful, stressful work environment. Everybody is already stretched thin."

While vaccines are still the quickest way to halt the pandemic, the US's immunization rollout has been painfully slow compared with what federal officials had anticipated. Earlier this month, the Trump administration predicted 20 million Americans would get a coronavirus shot by year's end. The US has shipped out about 14 million doses so far, but only about 2.6 million people have received their first injections, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

"It's really important that, until we have widespread vaccination rates in the entire country, even if you have both doses of vaccine, you still have to be careful," Mugele said. "You still have to wear your mask out in public, and you still have to avoid large gatherings, and you still have to wash your hands. We're still in the thick of this thing."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Kuwait opens bidding for construction of three cities to ease housing crunch.
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Did the Houthis disrupt the internet in the Middle East? Submarine cables cut in the Red Sea
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
Tether Expands into Gold Sector with Profit-Driven Diversification
Trump’s New War – and the ‘Drug Tyrant’ Fearing Invasion: ‘1,200 Missiles Aimed at Us’
At the Parade in China: Laser Weapons, 'Eagle Strike,' and a Missile Capable of 'Striking Anywhere in the World'
Information Warfare in the Age of AI: How Language Models Become Targets and Tools
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Iran Faces Escalating Water Crisis as Protests Spread
More Than Half a Million Evacuated as Typhoon Kajiki Heads for Vietnam
HSBC Switzerland Ends Relationships with Over 1,000 Clients from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Qatar, and Egypt
Sharia Law Made Legally Binding in Austria Despite Warnings Over 'Incompatible' Values
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Miles Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Cristiano Ronaldo Makes Surprise Stop at New Hong Kong Museum
Zelenskyy to Visit Washington after Trump–Putin Summit Yields No Agreement
×