‘My Family Got COVID After Being Vaccinated’–a Guest’s Perspective

Taylor and Daniel Stein on their farm. [Photo from an earlier story]

Hey all. Myself and my family recently had a bout with Covid and I thought it would be valuable to share my experience with y’all. Taylor and I are both Vaccinated. We received our second dose of the Pfizer vaccine back in April. We continued to do farmer’s market as we had throughout the pandemic and mask and social distance. After June 15th we, like most everyone else in California, started to change our habits. We stopped masking while outdoors and even often while indoors. We started hanging out with small groups of our friends outside our bubble again (thank goodness). At markets we continued to be cautious and sanitize our hands regularly, keep distance when possible, etc. It was Seeming like we were past the worst of the pandemic and on the up and up. People seemed to be over it entirely and back to normal life.

I don’t know where I could have been infected. I interact with a lot of people in my life. From markets to restaurants to grocery stores and the post office. Most places I have been lately either myself or others are not wearing a mask. I never was in contact with anyone who was visibly ill or sneezed in my face or anything like that. The folks I had spent time with indoors prior to testing were all vaccinated and have all tested negative. The fact that I can’t point to an obvious vulnerability or point of contact is worrisome and I think points to the increase in the transmissibility of the variants.

I was the one who contracted it and brought it back to our household. As an essential worker I have always continued to work around people even during the height of caution at the beginning of the pandemic. A couple of weeks ago I worked three long hot days in a row around lots of people. I went from pre-dawn to late at night and didn’t get much sleep at all. I was run down and exposed to lots of folks and I think that is the period of time I picked it up. I really don’t know, that’s just what my gut tells me.

There is definitely some truth to the idea that if you can just stay really healthy you are less likely to catch Covid. The reality for most folks is a bit more complicated than that though. I eat really well, exercise, spend most of my time outdoors, and consider myself very healthy in body and mind. Life has unforeseen circumstances. There are stressful days, and nights without sleep, and the challenges of parenting young children, to name a few. Everyone you see is dealing with unseen challenges. I’m not telling anyone what to do or how to be in the world, but this experience has reaffirmed my own personal commitment to do the things I can to prevent the spread of this virus.

The actual experience of being ill with Covid was relatively mild for me. I could feel the potential of it behind the reduced symptoms. I could feel the difference that the vaccine made. It felt like my body had the virus’s play book. Like every time it went to mount a huge surprise attack it was foiled. I kept having the feeling of the symptoms accelerating as if they were about to get really bad and then just kind of mysteriously disappearing. It was an odd feeling and not one I have been used to in fighting flues (I have never gotten a flu shot).

It felt different for me. Similar symptoms, but a different feeling as well, like standing at the edge of a precipice and seeing how far down you could fall. The loss of smell and taste was super disorienting as well, it was the loss of smell early on that alerted me to go get tested. I never had a a fever.

Taylor and the boys caught it from me before I even knew I was sick. For the boys it seemed like a summer cold. Also no fever, and mostly just really plugged noses and headaches. For Taylor is was worse. She had a few nights of almost no sleep when the boys were sick and it got a deeper foothold in her system. She had extreme fatigue, ice pick headaches, intense aches, brain fog, plugged sinuses and also the loss of smell and taste. The symptoms for her lasted a full week and she is still feeling the after effects of it. Like myself, she feels strongly that it would have been a lot worse without the vaccine.

Taylor’s mother, who is vaccinated and also was staying with us during the time we were getting sick, tested negative and never developed illness (thank goodness). Also our farmhands and other friends who were here during a time where exposure was very likely have all tested negative (all of them also had the Pfizer vaccine).

Now we wait to make sure we don’t pass it along. We are self isolating until the end of the month and then quarantining for another 10 days to make sure that we are not carriers. We have been super appreciative for the friends and neighbors who have helped us with meals and grocery store runs. And we are beyond grateful for our stellar farm team who have been keeping the farm running and the veggies harvested and distributed in our absence.

With any luck we will still like each other after three weeks without going anywhere or hanging out with anyone (stir crazy kids are flipping difficult).

My hope in writing this isn’t to scare people or to warn against coming out to enjoy being together as community. I think it is really important we do not isolate too much. We need each other more than ever now. The farmer’s markets and especially our little one in Briceland have been really heartwarming for me and I want them to keep going. I guess I am just hoping to remind you that this is real and there are simple things we can do to slow and even stop the spread of this virus. It is all pretty easy and painless compared to the virus itself. It is not over yet, but by all of us doing our part, it could be over soon. Mask up folks. Get vaccinated if you can. Let’s put this chapter behind us for real!

Feel free to reach out and ask any questions you have for me. Hope our experience helps inform y’all. Be kind and take care of each other out there!