(WXYZ) — "Right now I'm at home battling COVID, had it for about a week now,” said Jacob Ellis of Southgate while quarantining in his basement.
Ellis is one of the thousands of Michiganders currently battling COVID-19. However, his case is a rare one.
“You can see here I’ve received both doses of the Pfizer,” he said while pointing to his vaccination card.
As a paramedic, Ellis has been fully vaccinated since January. The mild stuffy nose and sore throat he got last week ended up being a positive case of COVID-19.
“I was wondering why I caught it when i was fully vaccinated," Ellis said. "It really kinda freaked me out.”
Ellis is what’s called a breakthrough case. Since no vaccine is 100% effective, doctors say these are expected.
“Every vaccine has some breakthrough cases," said Dr. Matthew Sims, Director of Infectious Disease Research at Beaumont Health. "Actually, to be frank, we’re seeing less breakthrough cases than we would’ve expected.”
According to the CDC, as of April 20 there have been 7,157 reported breakthrough cases in the United States. That’s out of more than 87 million fully vaccinated Americans, which is less than .01%.
“More than 50% of the cases out there that we know are breakthroughs are asymptomatic, they’re being caught in routine screening for work or travel or things like that,” Dr. Sims said.
Dr. Sims says breakthrough cases depend on your immune system, but also the amount of virus you get exposed to.
"Sometimes its about the immune symptom not making enough antibody, other times its really about how bad an exposure did that person get,” Dr. Sims said. "If you get a really bad exposure, like your sitting in a confined area with someone who's hacking and coughing for a few hours, that's a bad exposure. It may be enough virus that can breakthrough.”
That’s why Dr. Sims says it’s important for as many people as possible to get vaccinated.
Ellis’s says he likely caught COVID from a close contact, his girlfriend. He lives in the same house as his brother and parents, however all three of them have been vaccinated and so far all three are COVID free.
“Unfortunately I'm the lucky one who unfortunately got it,” Ellis said. "I do have underlying asthma, so I feel like if I wasn't protected and I didn't get the shot this could have been a lot worse for me.”
As of last week in the State of Michigan there have been at least 334 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 out of more than 2.7 million people who are fully vaccinated.