Dane Co. couple contracts COVID-19 on long-delayed honeymoon

WINDSOR, Wis. (WMTV) - A Dane County couple is trying to warn vaccinated people to not let their guard down just yet, after testing positive for COVID-19 months after being fully vaccinated.

“It’s far from over, as we learned the hard way,” said Melissa Bizeau.

Melissa and her husband Eric waited a year to go on their honeymoon, until both of them were fully vaccinated and restrictions had been lifted.

“We just kind of felt this, I don’t know, false sense now what we feel like of safe,” Melissa said.

Melissa added she and her husband had been careful both in Dane County and during their honeymoon.

“We rented an Airbnb, we were by ourselves, we went out to dinner a couple times,” she explained. Eric added, “[We] rented a boat so we weren’t going on boat excursions with other people.”

However, near the end of the trip, Eric started feeling sick.

“It just felt like the onset of a cold,” he described, adding, “You don’t really believe that you have it because you’ve been vaccinated. I mean, it’s not bulletproof, but you kind of tend to believe that it’s probably a cold and not COVID.”

When he started to lose his sense of smell, both decided to get tested, and those tests came back positive. Health officials said, given the effectiveness of vaccines, the Bizeaus’ situation is rare.

“In general, if you’ve been vaccinated, you are protected against COVID-19 infection,” explained David Ottenbaker, Vice President of Ambulatory Clinical Programs at SSM Health Wisconsin.

However, Ottenbacker also said it is not impossible to get infected, and there is nothing wrong with taking extra precautions. He added it is still important that people get tested if they start having symptoms.

“We still have a large part of our population, our kiddos, that have not been vaccinated yet, right? We do know that there will still be prevalence of the disease as we head into the fall,” Ottenbaker explained.

Melissa said she and her husband still want to emphasize everyone should get vaccinated. They are glad their symptoms were not more severe.

“I had a bad bout of pneumonia a couple of years ago and I think that had I not had the shot, it would probably have been very likely, very likely I would have been in the hospital,” Melissa explained.

The couple just hopes their story is a warning for others to remain vigilant.

“Even if the sign says, ‘If you’re vaccinated, you don’t need to wear a mask,’ wear it anyways,” Eric said.

The couple said on returning from their honeymoon, they quarantined for two weeks at their campground. They came home Saturday and said they are feeling much better, but they are not stopping mask wearing anytime soon.

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