Coronavirus cases among lawmakers who sheltered in lockdown show one vaccine dose may not immediately protect against infection - The Washington Post

Three members of Congress may have contracted the coronavirus while sheltering in a crowded room as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, testing positive shortly after getting a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

“We absolutely have to continue to wear masks and keep our distance, particularly after that first dose — and even after the second dose,” said immunologist Nicole Lieberman, a research scientist at the University of Washington.

All three of the lawmakers have said they received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine in the days before the Jan.

She wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post she was apprehensive about it because other people at the Capitol might “flout social distancing and mask guidelines.” Coleman received her first vaccine dose Dec.

The lawmakers were among those who huddled in a crowded room after the Capitol was put on lockdown last week.

The Office of Attending Physician at the Capitol said Sunday that lawmakers may have been exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus while in “protective isolation.”.

But she and other experts said the simplest explanation, considering the circumstances, was that the virus spread in the lockdown room.

Krystal Pollitt, an environmental health sciences professor at Yale University, said that as she watched the live feed of lawmakers, even before they were moved to the secure location, “all that could go” through her mind was how dangerous the situation was for transmitting the virus.

The lockdown room was a safe space for lawmakers under siege.

“People are projecting their voices, not wearing masks — there’s a lot of people in the space,” Pollitt said.

Even a well-functioning HVAC system would be pushed to its boundary, Pollitt said, to sufficiently exchange air and prevent transmission among unmasked people in an closed, windowless room.