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Local health care worker says she got COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated

YORK COUNTY, S.C. — Caroline Burke, of York County, is a registered medical assistant in a doctor’s office and said she tested positive for COVID-19 after getting both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

She showed Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke paperwork that shows she tested positive for COVID-19 in December, got the vaccine in mid-January and tested positive again in February.

“The first thought in my head was like, ‘Really?’” she told Stoogenke. “(I) rolled with the punches after that.”

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“Cases of reinfection with COVID-19 have been reported but remain rare,” the CDC said.

[Race to Vaccinate: What to know about the COVID-19 vaccine in North Carolina]

Forbes magazine and BNO News have also reported on the anomaly. BNO News tracks reinfection cases worldwide. It counted 11,700 suspected cases with 57 confirmed.

Burke supports getting vaccinated but wants others to be careful. She said she thinks the vaccine works and that it made her second case less severe. She still wants people to keep taking precautions and not let their guard down.

Moderna and Pfizer claim their vaccines are 95% effective while Johnson & Johnson says their vaccine is at 85%.

It also takes time to build an immunity to COVID-19.

“It typically takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity (protection against the virus that causes COVID-19) after vaccination,” the CDC said.

“I think of it as the new age flu. Even though you got the flu vaccine, you’re still susceptible to get the flu,” Burke said.