A Brooklyn man discovered on Monday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, more than two weeks after being hit.
Matthew Sambolin, 39, told The Post that while he opted for the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine because it was “convenient,” he now wishes he had gotten the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine instead.
“The risk was there, he was willing to take it. Now I wish I had made a different decision, ”he said in a phone call from the guest room of his home in Bath Beach, where he is currently in quarantine.
Sambolin said she was experiencing minor symptoms, including a mild cough and fatigue.
While a rapid test he took on Saturday came back negative, a more accurate PCR test came back positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, according to the documentation he provided.
“It was a shock,” Sambolin said upon learning of his positive test on Monday.
As the operations manager of two local radio stations, Sambolin said he had “no ambivalence” about the COVID vaccine and was eager to receive his.
“I wanted to help boost herd immunity,” he said.
Sambolin also said she thought it was important to get vaccinated to help keep her young daughter Nora, who is almost two years old, safe and for the sake of the employees she manages.
He received the vaccine on March 24 at the NYPD Community Center in East New York, according to his vaccination card.
Sambolin wanted to get the J&J jab because he wanted to get vaccinated when he drove to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina that weekend.
On Wednesday, the two-week mark since he received the vaccine, which is when experts say he would be considered fully vaccinated, Sambolin believes he was exposed to the virus through a co-worker who later tested positive for COVID.
Throughout the pandemic, Sambolin says he has taken all the recommended precautions, including wearing masks and social distancing, and has not been on public transportation in over a year, although he still goes to the office.
After discovering on Saturday that his colleague had contracted the error, Sambolin and his wife were tested at their local CityMD. Both his rapid test and his CRP were negative.
Sambolin said she decided to tell her story after seeing other coverage of people who had received the J&J jab and later contracted COVID, including stories from The Post about a Brooklyn woman who tested positive three weeks after her vaccination and a man from New Jersey hospitalized. with the virus five weeks after your injection.
Sporadic cases of post-vaccine horror stories have made local news across the country. Health experts say that while vaccinated people can still contract the virus, the likelihood of that happening is much lower than in people who are not vaccinated.
“The vaccine does not necessarily prevent you from contracting COVID. Avoid being hospitalized or dying from it, ”Dr. Kris Bungay, a primary care physician in Manhattan, previously told The Post. “That is why we all have to be careful.”
“It was not common in clinical trials for patients to have symptoms after being vaccinated,” Bungay added.
Moderna and Pfizer’s two-dose vaccines are 94% and 95% effective, respectively, at preventing symptomatic coronavirus infections after two doses, according to the CDC. The single-dose J&J vaccine only provides 66% protection.
Sambolin said he hoped that more people would consider that data before receiving the vaccine.
“I still think that getting vaccinated is definitely the way to get herd immunity,” he said, but “I hope they really consider weighing different efficacy.”
