EDWARDSVILLE — Alderman Jack Burns has tested positive for COVID-19 even though he had been fully vaccinated.
Burns participated remotely in two committee meetings Thursday, voting and contributing to conversations as usual but he sounded fatigued. He admitted between meetings that he had not been sleeping as much.
Burns, 74, spoke to an Intelligencer reporter by telephone Monday about recent events. He emphasized that he believes having been vaccinated earlier this year diluted the impact versus never being vaccinated. He said he received the Pfizer vaccine on Jan. 28 and Feb. 20 this year.
Pfizer said its two-dose vaccine was 95 percent effective against the virus. That does not mean Burns was in the five percent of vaccinated people who became infected. According to livescience.com, the actual percentage of vaccinated people in the Pfizer (and Moderna) trials who got COVID-19 was about 0.04 percent.
What the 95 percent actually means is that vaccinated people had a 95 percent lower risk of getting COVID-19 compared with the control group participants, who weren’t vaccinated, according to reporter Anna Nowogrodzki of livescience.com.
“Having had the vaccine earlier, it minimized the symptoms,” he said. “I could see where getting this and not being vaccinated would be pretty devastating.” At first, though, he wondered if his recent symptoms were somehow a delayed reaction to being vaccinated.
Burns and his wife, Lori, recently returned from a visit with their son and his family in Colorado Springs, Colorado. While there, Burns took his grandsons to visit Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota and they returned via Casper and Cheyenne, Wyoming.
“I’m not sure I was as diligent about hand washing while we were there as I had been here,” Burns said but he added that he’s convinced he contracted it while out west.
On July 4, they attended a semi-pro soccer game in Colorado and each time he pumped gas on the trip, he said he didn’t usually sanitize his hands afterward. On July 7, Burns said he was doing some volunteer working at Main Street Community Center, where he is known as the handyman. He was busy working when director Sara Berkbigler, the community center’s executive director, encountered him.
“He was working in the gift shop, fixing something on a counter,” Berkbigler said Monday. She said he had been working on renovating that area for the center. She said she checked on him twice that day, asking him how he was, and he told her he was tired but other than that, he was OK.
Berkbigler said after Burns informed her of his positive test, she had her staff contact another person who had been in the gift shop around the same time as Burns, but that person tested negative for COVID-19 and they are fine, she said.
“I thought I had the flu,” Burns said. “I had a low-grade fever, every joint in my body ached, I had night sweats, chills and a cough,” he said. He said overall, he was very tired. One day, he said he slept for 18 hours.
He called his doctor on July 12 to report his symptoms. His wife suggested getting a rapid test at the Walgreens on the southwest corner of Main Street and West Vandalia. Burns had nothing but praise for how the test was administered and the short amount of time it took.
“I bet I was gone and back in 15 minutes,” he said.
He said Monday that he’s taking antibiotics his doctor prescribed. His 10-day quarantine period ended Saturday, but he still plans to attend Tuesday’s city council meeting virtually. On Monday he said he felt better, noting that he cut the grass at home Sunday, even though he used a riding lawnmower versus a push mower.
Lori self-quarantined before Burns got tested, he said. She believes she contracted COVID-19 sometime last year, just after she had surgery. She’s fine, he said Monday.
Burns advises others not to let their guard down and the people need to do their due diligence when it comes to hand-washing after being in public and touching a variety of surfaces.
“If you haven’t been vaccinated, I think people should get vaccinated, even though I know some people are against it,” he said. “Be careful when in public and use good hygiene.”
Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at 618-659-5735
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