Five Texas House Democrats who traveled to Washington, D.C., have tested positive for coronavirus

[Elderberry]

KHOU by  Allyson Waller 7/18/2021

Five Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives who traveled to Washington D.C. last week have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the Texas House Democratic Caucus.

The five lawmakers are among House Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C., to stave off GOP priority voting bills during the special legislative session. The members who tested positive all have been fully vaccinated, which helps protect against severe illness. All of the lawmakers are showing no symptoms or only mild symptoms.

The House Democratic Caucus announced on Saturday that three Democrats had tested positive. After further precautionary testing, two more members tested positive for COVID-19, the caucus announced late Sunday.

San Antonio Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said Sunday he was among the two new positive tests.

"Today, I received a positive COVID-19 rapid antigen test result. I am fully vaccinated, and had tested negative on Friday and Saturday. I am quarantining until I test negative, and I am grateful to be only experiencing extremely mild symptoms," he said in a statement, which urged the public to get vaccinated and said he will continue to participate in the quorum break.

More: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/htownrush/why-texas-politicians-have-fled-the-state-in-the-past/285-0fdb7887-5cd6-4d7f-b123-ba9a4575f27e

[PeteS in CA]

TWO MORE TEXAS DEMS DOWN [UPDATED]

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/07/two-more-texas-dems-down.php

I doubt that the press releases should be taken at face value. I would guess the Texas Dems’ press spokesman or the Dems themselves are lying about vaccination status to mitigate the the comic fiasco their delegation has created.

If the spokesman is playing it straight, however, the vaccines must be less effective than they are cracked up to be. In that case it would be time to check in with Alex Berenson on here (on Twitter) or here (on Substack) and perhaps even Ms. Misinformation herself for a comment.
...
UPDATE: I asked Healthy Skeptic’s Kevin Roche for a comment on this story. Kevin has a take that should be added to the mix: “Given the oversensitivity of PCR tests, and the fact that vaccines don’t prevent exposure so that anyone could have virus fragments in his upper respiratory tract, I am not surprised that a lot of vaxed people will test positive, but be unlikely to really be infected.”

Maybe I travel in the "wrong" circles, but Roche is the first person - other than myself, on another site - to point out the obvious fact that a vaccinated person whose immune system had successfully prevented an infection will still for a time have virus fragments in their system that a PCR test could detect. PCR tests cannot discern between a live virus and a fragment of a virus destroyed by antibodies.

As to the Dems' claims they are fully vaxxed, maybe, but given DC's current political climate their claim should be taken with a good sized block of salt.