Nothing says “you are special” more than catching COVID two months after being fully vaccinated*. Unfortunately, that’s precisely what happened to me.
About 2.5 weeks ago, as I was returning to Germany from an international trip, I started feeling … unwell. Slight shivers at night, a bit of a runny nose. No fever though.
At first I didn’t think much of it since I have a tendency to feel weakened after long international trips (it’s my immune system telling me to slow down). Also I had a dinner in Munich right upon landing – outdoors while it was raining. “It must be a cold” I tell myself. COVID didn’t even cross my mind.
A day later, in Berlin, I start losing taste and smell. Looking back, the coffee in the train was extremely tasteless (but aren’t all train coffees like that?). For the first time I wonder if it could be COVID. I go and do a quick rapid test. Negative.
The weekend starts, I start seeing friends, even stay with them. A couple drives 80km to come and see me. All the time, I think myself what an annoying cold. Still, I go and do two more rapid tests. Partially because they are so readily available (and required to enter restaurants), but also because I wanted to be extra certain that this is not COVID. Both tests returned negative. I go see more friends.
But then towards the end of the weekend, in preparation for my return flight to the US, I go and do a PCR. It comes back positive. COVID, despite being fully vaccinated. I immediately call all my 10 or so friends that I had seen over the course of the weekend. Calls that I hate to make. Profusely apologetic, shameful, helpless. My friends even have to notify other folks they had since seen, including parents, vulnerable parents. It’s like an avalanche that I triggered, impacting lives of people I didn’t even know.
I felt I did everything right, but still did everyone wrong.
Within an hour of getting the results, I move out my friend’s apartment, and spend 8 hours on the streets until I manage to move into an AirBnB that I had booked last minute. And so begins my two-week quarantine – grueling, never-ending, boring quarantine. Boredom mixes with a heavy and depressing feeling of guilt when I learn that my host in Berlin, partially vaccinated herself, tests positive. She had just submitted her PhD thesis, was ready to taste freedom, but then had to go into quarantine.
Two weeks go by, the health authorities check in on me, send me letters and call from time to time. My symptoms go away after about a week, yet my mid-quarantine PCR comes back positive again. Quarantine continues. Everything feels like March 2020 again. In the end, two weeks after my symptoms started, I do another PCR. Negative. Thank god.
My friend jokes I should update my dating profiles: “vaccinated AND natural antibodies.” I refrain.
Some of my takeaways from the past couple weeks
Definitely get vaccinated. I know it didn’t help in terms of contracting, but it did help to make sure I only had a mild case.
Even if you are vaccinated, if you have COVID-like symptoms, assume it’s COVID. Don’t dismiss it as a cold.
Don’t rely on rapid tests. PCR is the way to go to actually have certainty.
*I know you are all wondering. I got Pfizer, two shots.