Seven members of the New York Yankees’ coaching and support staff have tested positive for Covid-19 despite being inoculated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the baseball team’s manager said.
Six of those seven people do not have symptoms, Aaron Boone said Wednesday.
The single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 72% effective against Covid-19 among US trial participants and 85% effective against severe Covid.
The two-dose vaccines used in the US, from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, are both about 95% effective against Covid-19.
It’s not possible to get Covid-19 from any of those three vaccines because none of them contains coronavirus.
But even if someone gets Covid-19 after being fully vaccinated, the symptoms will likely be far less severe than if they didn’t get vaccinated at all, said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University. This is similar to how the flu vaccine works.
And the fact that six of the seven infected members don’t have symptoms shows how “remarkably great” the vaccine is at preventing people from getting sick from Covid-19, Reiner said.
The Yankees said the seven members were vaccinated on April 7. People are still vulnerable to infection immediately after the shots because the vaccines don’t fully kick in until about two weeks after the last dose.
On Tuesday, the Yankees said third base coach Phil Nevin had tested positive.
Out of an abundance of caution, shortstop Gleyber Torres did not play in Wednesday’s game because he was waiting for Covid-19 test results, Boone said. Torres had coronavirus in December and has been vaccinated, the manager said.
The Yankees have been playing under relaxed health and safety protocols after reaching an MLB-recommended 85% threshold of vaccinated team members in late April.
The Yankees are currently in Tampa, Florida, for the last game of their series against the Tampa Bay Rays.
They’re scheduled to travel to Baltimore ahead of their series against the Orioles on Friday.
