Catching Covid between your first and second dose of the vaccine is not impossible and can result from a lack of attention to preventive measures. This phenomenon has also been called ‘vaccine syndrome’ or ‘first dose syndrome’.
In practice, you’ve received your first dose of the vaccine and slowly the vaccine syndrome takes hold: the heavily forgotten or worn-out mask, the more respected social distancing, the braces, the hugs…
Since May 19 and returning to the stands in particular, the French have found a more ordinary life and old habits are gaining ground at the expense of respecting sanitary measures. Long-awaited moments of coexistence naturally result in less vigilance in relation to barrier gestures and there are consequences to this relaxation.
The first dose is not an immune totem
In the face of this vaccine syndrome, security professionals warn that efforts must be continued after the first injection, stressing that the vaccine is not immediately effective. Vaccine protection is already increased to maximum 15 days after the second dose.
Infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido also commented on this phenomenon in Parisian. Regarding the first vaccination, he pointed out that those “ You see their first dose as a totem, while all the first antibodies don’t appear until two weeks later and then gradually climb up.”
For Infectious Diseases Professor at St. Louis Hospital, Anne-Claude Crémieux, in an interview with France 3, “ The majority of people who were vaccinated and then contracted the virus were infected mostly between the first and second week after the first injection ”, identifies Professor Anne-Claude Crémieux, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Saint Louis Hospital in France Columns.
The protection offered is not 100%.
In more detail, for the RNA messenger vaccine, Pfizer and Moderna, protection against severe forms of covid is about 80% between 14 and 21 days after the first dose. It reaches approximately 95% two weeks after the second dose.
For AstraZeneca, protection against severe forms is 70% one month after the first dose and about 90% two weeks after the second dose.
In the face of circulating variables for which the efficacy of vaccines is still not well known, either after the first or second dose, barrier gestures remain essential. The protection conferred by vaccines is not 100%.