AUSTIN, Texas — Dr. Emily Porter and her husband got vaccinated for COVID-19 before Christmas.
Right around that time, her son was showing signs of being sick: nothing out of the ordinary for a young boy.
"He had a little runny nose and a fever for a day," Porter said. "In retrospect, we probably should have tested in the day that he got a fever, but isolating a five-year-old from a household of six is also quite difficult."
Days after getting vaccinated, Porter's husband started showing symptoms of coronavirus: a fever and being unusually tired. He tested positive. A day or two after that, Porter tested positive and was feeling similar symptoms, mostly shortness of breath.
"We knew that the vaccine didn't have time to work because they're saying really 10 to 14 days for 50% efficacy [after the first dose]," Porter said.
Porter and her husband had not yet gotten their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Doctors across the country have said both doses are essential to being able to fight off the virus. Even so, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have 95% efficacy.
Coincidentally, Porter believes her son may have contracted the virus from his daycare and brought it home. They had not traveled or seen any family or friends for the holidays. Her son first started showing symptoms of being sick about a week before Christmas, after coming home from daycare.
Now, Porter suspects her whole family is positive for COVID-19 after getting her four children tested for the virus.
One child tested negative, but she believes it's a false negative because the entire family has quarantined together and everyone has shown symptoms.
"I have no doubt in my mind that this is just really bad luck that we had," Porter said.
With the holidays ending, she plans to talk with her family's primary care physician regarding when to get the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine: when she is originally scheduled three weeks after her first dose, or if she should wait a while longer as antibodies naturally develop after she contracted the virus.
As it stands, Porter has no plans to send her kids back to school until well after the quarantine period. The Porter family will get tested again before seeing any other family members or going back to work.
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