Health Care Worker: “As Soon as I Got the Vaccine, I Got COVID”

by Sharon Rondeau

(Oct. 15, 2021) — Recently The Post & Email had the opportunity conduct an in-person interview with a patient care technician (PCT) currently working in a U.S. hospital about coronavirus protocols, vaccine mandates, and the disease itself.

The PCT is currently working on a cardiac floor which accepts patients presenting with shortness of breath, chest pain, or actual heart attack.

Approximately 70% of the patients the floor is treating now, the PCT said, are “fully vaccinated” for COVID-19, with many testing “positive” for the disease after their admission.

If the patient is placed in a private room, he or she is not required to wear a mask, the PCT told us; if in a shared room and unvaccinated, the patient is required to be masked. The hospital is not allowed to deny care to anyone who is unvaccinated, she said.

As for coronavirus vaccine requirements for health-care workers issued in the state where she works, the PCT said her coworkers are “upset at the mandate,” particularly in light of the fact that they do not have the option of undergoing weekly testing. “A lot of people don’t believe in the vaccine itself,” she told us, and “I personally do not believe in vaccines.”

The Post & Email was unaware of the PCT’s views on vaccines prior to the interview, as it was our first encounter.

She observed that influenza vaccines have been mandatory within the healthcare industry for a number of years.

As for the reason behind the COVID mandates, she said, “There have to be funds going somewhere. Who’s paying for us to get these vaccines? Even though it’s free to us, private companies are buying it.”

“A lot” of patients are admitted with pneumonia, she said, which is sometimes in addition to a positive coronavirus test but other times as a stand-alone infection.

She was exposed to COVID-19 frequently prior to the arrival of the vaccines, she said, but “As soon as I got the vaccine, I got COVID.”

She finished her two-shot Pfizer regimen in August, she said, and tested “positive” for the virus in September. When we asked about her symptoms from the illness, she said she experienced a “complete loss of smell and taste” for about a day and a half. She had a “bad headache” and was quarantined for the mandatory ten days, she said. She obtained a “negative” test result at the “end of September,” she told us.

Some shortness of breath remains, she said. “It takes 3-4 months for it to be out of your system completely. I have a tiny bit of pain, but I have to give it time.”

As for any side effects from the injections, the PCT told us she had a “sore arm, fatigue, and migraines with the second dose. The second dose was worse than the first.” However, the headache was “worse from the actual virus,” she said.

In total, her symptoms lasted about five days, she said. She believes she was less ill than she would have been had she not received the vaccine. She added, however, that overall, “the vaccines don’t do what they’re supposed to to do.”

When we asked if she would take the vaccine again, she responded, “Yes, for my job. I wouldn’t have gotten it if it were not for that.”

She said she researched the vaccines prior to inoculation and was aware they are experimental.

When we asked if she knew anyone who had experienced severe side effects from the vaccines, she responded, “No.”

The Post & Email asked if she has witnessed any curiosity among the hospital medical staff as to why so many vaccinated people are coming in with the virus, to which she responded, “I haven’t heard anything, but they may have conversations among themselves.”

We asked if there is a hospital treatment regimen for COVID-19 patients, to which she responded, “There isn’t anything to treat COVID. If it turns into pneumonia, we use antibiotics.” She qualified that by saying, “There could be a treatment plan that I don’t have access to” as a PCT as opposed to a nurse or physician.

We asked if she had heard of hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, or Remdesivir being administered to COVID patients, to which she responded in the negative. However, she said she has seen zinc ordered as part of a treatment plan.

We asked if she had seen anyone young pass away from the virus, to which she responded, “Yes.” We asked how old the individual was, to which she replied, “In his mid-40s. He came in with shortness of breath and tested positive in the hospital.”

We asked if the gentleman had any pre-existing conditions, to which she said, “Not to my knowledge.”