Stephen Lynch tests positive for coronavirus after receiving second vaccine dose
WEST ROXBURY, MA. – SEPTEMBER 1: US Congressman Steven Lynch greets voters and supporters at the Holy Name Parish Hall on September 1, 2020 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. (Staff Photo By Matt Stone/ MediaNews Group/Boston Herald)
By LISA KASHINSKY | lkashinsky@bostonherald.com |
PUBLISHED: January 29, 2021 at 4:47 p.m. | UPDATED: January 29, 2021 at 7:02 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch has tested positive for COVID-19 — after receiving his second dose of a vaccine.{2nd dose before Biden's
Inauguration}
Lynch received his positive test result after a staff member in his Boston office tested positive earlier in the week, spokeswoman Molly Rose Tarpey said.
The congressman had received his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine and tested negative before attending President Biden’s inauguration last week. Lynch is now self-quarantining.
“This afternoon U.S. Representative Stephen F. Lynch received a positive test result for COVID-19 after a staff member in the Congressman’s Boston office had tested positive earlier in the week. Congressman Lynch had received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine and subsequently received a negative COVID-19 test prior to attending President Biden’s Inauguration,” Tarpey said in a statement issued on Friday afternoon
“While Mr. Lynch remains asymptomatic and feels fine, he will self-quarantine and will vote by proxy in Congress during the coming week,” she continued.
Lynch is the second member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation to test positive for the coronavirus in as many days.
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan tested positive on Thursday and is also self-quarantining.
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out to check in on my family & me over the past day,” she tweeted in an update on Friday. “I’m isolating apart from my husband and girls who are negative & quarantining as well.”
Lynch receiving a positive test result after his second dose of a vaccine points to the unknowns still surrounding the sought-after shots, Boston University infectious diseases specialist Dr. Davidson Hamer said.
“Neither the Pfizer nor Moderna vaccine is 100% protective based on the studies that were done. They’re both about 95% effective against symptomatic infections,” Hamer said.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is supposed to have about 95% efficacy against symptomatic infection seven or more days after the second dose is administered, according to its clinical trial.
But the science is still out on how well the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines prevent asymptomatic infection — and how well they prevent transmission, Hamer said.
“Is it a vaccine failure or is that the vaccine not prevent asymptomatic infection?” Hamer, who has not directly treated or talked to Lynch, mused. “Is he protected against symptomatic infection, which would be great for him, because it can lessen the risk of hospitalizations?”
The exact timeline of when Lynch received his vaccine doses was not immediately clear. The congressman visited the Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center last Friday when nearly 2,000 Moderna vaccine doses were wasted after a contractor accidentally loosened a freezer plug while cleaning. Lynch did not return a call from a Herald reporter Friday afternoon.
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