Skip to content
  • Hot News Today
  • Fashion News
  • Automotive News
  • Technology News
  • Movie News
  • Health News
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
Copyright United Dairy News 2025
Theme by ThemeinProgress
Proudly powered by WordPress
  • Hot News Today
  • Fashion News
  • Automotive News
  • Technology News
  • Movie News
  • Health News
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
United Dairy News
  • You are here :
  • Home
  • Health News
  • COVID hit this family twice, but vaccines blunted reinfections : Shots
COVID hit this family twice, but vaccines blunted reinfections : Shots
Health News

COVID hit this family twice, but vaccines blunted reinfections : Shots

Eleanore Beatty November 28, 2021 Article

Three generations, (from left to right) grandmother Genoveva Calloway, daughter Petra Gonzales, and granddaughter Vanesa Quintero, live next door to each other in San Pablo, Calif. Recently their extended family was hit with a second wave of COVID infections a year after the first.

Beth LaBerge/KQED


hide caption

toggle caption

Beth LaBerge/KQED


Three generations, (from left to right) grandmother Genoveva Calloway, daughter Petra Gonzales, and granddaughter Vanesa Quintero, live next door to each other in San Pablo, Calif. Recently their extended family was hit with a second wave of COVID infections a year after the first.

Beth LaBerge/KQED

On a Friday afternoon in early October this year, 8-year-old Maricia Redondo came home from her third grade class in the San Francisco Bay Area with puffy eyes, a runny nose and a cough.

“On Saturday morning we both got tested,” says Vanessa Quintero, Maricia’s 31-year-old mother. “Our results came back Monday that we were both positive.”

Vanessa stared at her phone in shock and called her doctor’s test-result hotline again, in disbelief. “This is wrong,” she thought. “I hung up and dialed again. It’s positive. This is wrong. I hung up again. And then I did it again!”

She was freaking out for two reasons. First, her large, extended family had already fought a harrowing battle against COVID-19 last year — in the fall of 2020. The virus had traveled fast and furious through their working class neighborhood back then, in the East Bay city of San Pablo. Four generations of Vanessa’s family live next door to each other in three different houses there, all connected by a backyard.

Vanessa was also terrified because she couldn’t fathom another round of treatment against a more dangerous variant than she’d faced before. The pandemic has disproportionately struck Latino families across the United States, and delta is currently the predominant variant in the U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s twice as contagious and may cause more severe illnesses than previous variants in unvaccinated people.

I'm fully vaccinated and I also had COVID. Do I need a booster?

Some parents want to wait to vaccinate their kids. Here's why doctors say do it now

The family’s bad luck was uncanny. Research suggests immunity against a natural infection lasts about a year. And here it was almost exactly the same time of year and the family was fighting COVID-19 again.

“Reinfection is a thing,” says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a specialist in infections diseases and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “It probably manifests itself more when the variant in town looks different enough from the previous variants. Or enough time has elapsed since you first got it, [and] immunity has waned.” He says a second infection is still not common, but doctors are starting to see more cases.

Welcoming family into your home for Thanksgiving? Here's how to keep COVID out

CDC backs expansion of COVID boosters for all adults

Computer models in a recent study suggest that people who have been infected by the virus can expect a reinfection within a year or two if they do not wear a mask or receive a vaccination. The findings show that the risk of a second bout rises over time. A person has a 5{a78e43caf781a4748142ac77894e52b42fd2247cba0219deedaee5032d61bfc9} chance of catching the virus four months after an initial infection, but a 50{a78e43caf781a4748142ac77894e52b42fd2247cba0219deedaee5032d61bfc9} chance 17 months later.

“The second time it was scarier because I’m vaccinated,” says Vanessa referring to the family’s second bout with the virus in October 2021. “Her dad’s vaccinated. We’re protected in that sense, but she’s [Maricia] not.”

Her 8-year-old daughter was still too young to qualify for a vaccine. This fall the little girl lay in bed wheezing. Vanessa tripled down on Maricia’s asthma medication and the parents quarantined themselves inside, too. Vanessa shuddered at the prospect of telling her mother and grandma about a second round of positive test results.

The family’s first battle with COVID

During a 2020 family gathering on Halloween, Maricia complained she wasn’t feeling good. Over the next few days Vanessa, and Vanessa’s partner, mother, two cousins, two aunts, an uncle and two grandmothers all tested positive for COVID-19. Eventually at least 13 family members caught the virus at that time and several got quite sick.

Multiple family members had to be rushed to the hospital.

Extended Families Living Together Raise Risks For COVID-19 Transmission

Vanessa, who, like her 8-year-old daughter Maricia, suffers from asthma, was the first person to need that emergency care. “I was on the floor,” Vanessa remembers. “I couldn’t even say ‘I’m hungry’ without coughing.”

Then Vanessa’s 51-year-old mother, Petra Gonzales, almost blacked out.

“I got a really high fever,” says Petra. “There were times when I’d fall asleep and I was OK if I didn’t wake up.”

In last year’s COVID bout, Petra landed in the ER with severe dehydration. Soon she heard that her 71-year-old mother, Genoveva Calloway, needed hospital care for dangerously low oxygen levels and was being treated at another hospital across town.

Unlike Petra and Vanessa, who were not admitted for an extended stay at the hospital in 2020, and slowly recovered at home, Genoveva’s condition was critical. She spent day after day under close supervision from doctors and nurses.

“It was really painful not to be able to help my family, because we always help each other,” says Genoveva, as her voice cracked with emotion. “We are always there for each other. It was so horrible.”

Finally, after nearly two weeks in the hospital, Genoveva was discharged. She was still connected to an oxygen machine as nurses shuffled her out. When Genoveva and Petra greeted each other on the street, they embraced fiercely.

“She hugged me so tight,” says Genoveva. “I’ll never forget that. We missed each other so much.”

A year later, though, Genoveva is still recovering. She’s now plagued by interstitial lung disease. That’s why another round of the virus this year is a terrifying possibility.

Fewer family members sick the second time — they credit vaccination

More than 90{a78e43caf781a4748142ac77894e52b42fd2247cba0219deedaee5032d61bfc9} of federal workers have had a shot by the COVID-19 vaccine deadline

Fortunately the family’s worst fears did not unfold. Genoveva was out of town when her great-granddaughter, Maricia, brought the virus home this time, and Maricia herself recovered. The other adults did not develop symptoms — they credit the COVID vaccinations they’d been able to get before the delta surge this fall. Research published by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention concludes that vaccines offer better protection against reinfections than a natural infection. However, if a breakthrough infection occurs after someone’s been vaccinated it will act like a natural “booster” and result in hybrid immunity according to Chin-Hong. He suggests most patients who are not immunocompromised wait three months until after a recent infection before getting a vaccine or a booster.

“Each exposure we have, whether it’s from the infection or whether it’s from the vaccine, improves our ability to combat an infection the next time around,” says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Stanford University.

But Parsonnet also notes there are a lot of variables at play. First, immunity wanes. Second, the virus can mutate. Third, no vaccine provides 100{a78e43caf781a4748142ac77894e52b42fd2247cba0219deedaee5032d61bfc9} protection, and the shots may not be equally protective for everyone.

“There are certain people, including the elderly, people who are immunocompromised and people on dialysis, who really can’t mount a good immune response,” Parsonnet says. “They’re always also going to be at risk. So every child getting vaccinated helps protect all those other people in the family that they may live with, or their neighbors.”

Multi-generational living is common in Genoveva’s community in the Bay Area. And her city, San Pablo, is a hot spot in Contra Costa County, where 1 out of 11 people have tested positive for the coronavirus. At the height of the pandemic, nearly 800 people tested positive in the county every day.

“Our neighborhood has three, four generations living in the same house,” Genoveva says.

She says her recent booster shot allows her more peace of mind. Genoveva is looking forward to the day when her great-granddaughter and the rest of her family are finally vaccinated.

You may also like

Aging with Dignity: How Assisted Living Improves Quality of Life for Seniors

COVID vaccine prices could quadruple : Shots

Patient advocates push for aggressive crackdown on medical debt : Shots

Teen mental health is in crisis, study shows. What can parents do?

How long should Texas extend Medicaid coverage after childbirth? : Shots

FDA has new power to hold drugmakers accountable : Shots

Tags: blunted, COVID, family, hit, reinfections, Shots, vaccines

Archives

  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021

Calendar

July 2025
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Dec    

Categories

  • Automotive News
  • Business Tips
  • Fashion News
  • Health News
  • Home Improvements
  • Hot News Today
  • Law News
  • Movie News
  • Technology News

Recent Posts

  • How Does Web Hosting Affect Search Engine Ranking?
  • How to Choose the Best Stainless Steel Coils for Your Project
  • Understanding VPS Hosting Basics
  • Generate Buzz for Your Summer Fashion Collection With These 10 Strategies
  • Aging with Dignity: How Assisted Living Improves Quality of Life for Seniors

Archives

  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021

Visit Here

All About Animals

Copyright United Dairy News 2025 | Theme by ThemeinProgress | Proudly powered by WordPress

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT