Dem Congressman Catches COVID After Receiving 2nd Dose Of Vaccine

As it turns out, Republicans aren’t the only politicians capable of getting COVID.

Offering the latest reminder that the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t 100% effective at stopping people from getting the virus, Democratic Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York announced that he had tested positive even after receiving the second dose of a vaccine. He’s now isolating at home.

“I received the second dose of the #COVID19vaccine last week and understand the affects take time,” Espaillat said on Twitter Thursday, without identifying which vaccine he got. “I have continued to be tested regularly, wear my mask and follow the recommended guidelines.”

Despite all those warnings about a long, dark winter, COVID-linked hospitalizations might have declined over the past month.

The news comes as the CEO Moderna, the maker of one of one of the mRNA COVID vaccines, warned Wednesday that the coronavirus will be around “forever” – despite all that talk about the vaccine bringing back a sense of normalcy to the world.

And Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel isn’t the only official and infectious disease expert to have discussed the high likelihood that COVID-19 will become an endemic disease, meaning it will become present in communities at all times, though likely at much lower levels than it is now.

“We are going to live with this virus, we think, forever,” he said during a panel discussion at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.

As researchers in Ohio discover new mutant strains that likely evolved in the US, the long-term efficacy of vaccines, and the virus’s ability to adapt and become more transmissible, or even more deadly, still aren’t well understood.

Even as the US accelerates the process of doling out vaccinations, it will still take months to inoculate the entire population.