Rich Eisen is COVID-19 positive despite being vaccinated

Rich Eisen announced on social media Thursday that he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing symptoms despite being vaccinated. The NFL Network anchor had a message for his followers: “Get vaccinated.”

“Double-vaxxed. COVID+. It’s possible, folks. As someone sitting Day 4 in quarantine fighting off symptoms, I can personally attest you still need to be careful and, most importantly, get vaccinated,” Eisen wrote on Instagram.

While the U.S. statistically has fewer cases and deaths than it did in January, the coronavirus is on the rise due to the increasingly virulent delta variant.

Eisen received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine in February and said that he is now experiencing side effects of the virus, though he did not describe which. However, he emphasized that his symptoms would be far worse if he had not gotten vaccinated.

“Every health care professional I’ve come across in the last few days tell me the two shots of Pfizer I got in February are what’s keeping a 52-year-old like me from a far worse experience than the awful one I’m having,” Eisen wrote. “So, be careful if you’re vaccinated and, if you’re not vaccinated, don’t wait another second.”

Though he is COVID-19 positive while vaccinated, he discussed that he still encourages others to get their vaccine to protect their own health, but also that of their community.

“Why? Especially since mine didn’t keep COVID from my body?” he elaborated on why he was advocating for the vaccine, despite contracting the coronavirus. “So there aren’t any more variants to pierce highly-effective vaccines that would ordinarily get all of us back to normal life. But if you want an answer maybe a bit more personal to you: get vaccinated so you won’t go to the hospital or die.”

A Yale School of Public Health and the Commonwealth Fund study found that COVID-19 vaccinations are thought to have saved 300,000 lives. To date, there have been over 334 million vaccines administered across the United States with 48.2% of Americans fully vaccinated.