Medical Discussion of Coronavirus

[Shant]

Pfizer - Pfizer - Moderna for me. 1st dose gave minor effects - actively sore arm and fatigue for weeks and kicked up a minor old autoimmune issue that usually flares with a cold. Second dose was brutal the day after and I was really dreading dose three. I geared up and arranged all-day care for the day after my third dose and.... nothing. I had a very nice day playing board games with the person who was here to help me to the john and call for assistance if I needed more help. Barely even a sore arm.

[CordMcNally]

Pfizer - Pfizer - Moderna for me. 1st dose gave minor effects - actively sore arm and fatigue for weeks and kicked up a minor old autoimmune issue that usually flares with a cold. Second dose was brutal the day after and I was really dreading dose three. I geared up and arranged all-day care for the day after my third dose and.... nothing. I had a very nice day playing board games with the person who was here to help me to the john and call for assistance if I needed more help. Barely even a sore arm.

You thought your day turned out to be better than expected, I bet that other person was ecstatic to play board games with you rather than the alternative.

[Lordosis]

Pfizer (dec), Pfizer (Jan), Covid (July), Pfizer (Oct).

I was a little worried since I had covid that I would have a more significant reaction but I did not. I still prefer the vaccine to the disease.

[FunkDoc83]

Not sure if this was already talked about, but what effect will the pfizer covid pill have on people getting vaccinated? People might decide why get the vaccine, if I get sick I'll just take the pill.

[pulmdoc]

The last few weeks have seen absolutely fantastic news on the pharmaceutical front in terms of new treatments for COVID. If the Merck pill, the Pfizer pill and now the AZ antibody infusion (both for infection treatment AND as an alternative to vaccination, wow!) hold up their efficacy in the real world similar to their trial results, they would be dramatic improvements in preventing people from the worst of the disease. Of course, I expect these meds to be unavailable to uninsured/underinsured patients due to cost, so the pandemic will shift to unvaccinated/poor even more than it already is.

I have really needed good news to keep me going. Hospital/ICU numbers are falling, but I am seeing a deluge of clinic patients, mostly from last winter's surge who are still struggling a year after COVID and wondering what hope I can offer them to keep their heads up. I'm seeing 3-4 new patients/day post-COVID, and there have been a lot of "mild" (non hospitalized) cases in middle aged people who are still on oxygen, lost jobs, can't function because of this damned disease.

[NumberWhizMD]

Has anyone had their 5-11 year old child vaccinated yet and care to share what side effects, if any, they had? My teenager only had a sore arm and my 12 year old slept for almost a day after her second shot, and am going to get my 10 year old son (others were girls, so I wasn’t too concerned about myocarditis) vaccinated with first dose today or tomorrow. (And yes I know that vaccination risk of myocarditis is less than covid infection risk).

My daughters got it last Friday. The younger (who also had COVID in January) had no side effects. The older one had significant LAD on the side of the shot that lasted about 3 days. She had to miss one swim practice as a result, but otherwise was managed well with tylenol.

My husband and I both had the Pfizer initially, and we decided to get the Moderna booster. Both of us had headaches, body aches, and fatigue for 24 hours that resolved with tylenol. No fevers or any significant side effects, just felt a little "off" for the following 24 hours.

[pysibal]

Pfizer x3. Crescendo of sx with each one worse then the last. I am not looking forward to a fourth shot next year - I hope I hit the ceiling soon or I'll need to try another vaccine.

[artemis]

Hospital/ICU numbers are falling, but I am seeing a deluge of clinic patients, mostly from last winter's surge who are still struggling a year after COVID and wondering what hope I can offer them to keep their heads up. I'm seeing 3-4 new patients/day post-COVID, and there have been a lot of "mild" (non hospitalized) cases in middle aged people who are still on oxygen, lost jobs, can't function because of this damned disease.

And clearing out the hospitals of COVID patients doesn't clear out the hospitals. There's a huge pool of patients who've had elective surgeries postponed waiting in the wings. My own hospital estimates it will take at least a year to work through that backlog.

Even with the fabulous treatment news, we have a long road ahead of us.

[nephron]

you can look at the nejm article if you want to know the side effects of the vaccine for kids 5-11. Its kind of ironic to have doctors posting on an anonymous internet forum asking for anecdotal experiences from random people to figure out what side effects their kids are having with the vaccine. Reminds me of the number of my patients who refuse to get vaccinated because they know people who died shortly after they were vaccinated. I'm guessing they are all referring to the same people who died right after they were vaccinated, but I can't figure out who they were and how they were all connected to my patients.

s anyone else worried about what the vaccine mandates is going to do to healthcare facilities? I think that we are seeing an 80% vaccination rate amongst staff at our hd units and I have heard of similar numbers at the hospitals. If these nurses/techs/etc quit or are laid off when the medicare deadline occurs, I don't know how we are going to be able to staff these facilities. I'm all for people getting vaccinated but I think these employer vaccine mandates are asinine. If having more people vaccinated is good for the population, why put the onus on employers to get people vaccinated. I would have just had a federal vaccine mandate that maybe had some financial penalty for not getting vaccinated, and maybe a vaccine mandate to travel on planes, go to concerts, etc. You can probably do a cost analysis to figure out how much it costs the healthcare system to be unvaccinated vs vaccinated by looking at the hospitalization/icu rates between the two groups. It's probably a fairly high difference given the cost of some of these covid hospitalizations.

[setsail26]

The reason for mandates in health care settings is so we don't make patients sick. The HD center is full of super high risk immune suppressed people. It would kinda suck to get COVID from a medical center. Also, think about financial risk if the patient died (or spent a month in the ICU) and the family could somehow prove the patient got it from the unvaccinated worker at the HD center. Unlikely, yes, but why take the risk? Also, it's not like vaccine mandates are new in health care. Hep B, influenza, etc.

[Lordosis]

you can look at the nejm article if you want to know the side effects of the vaccine for kids 5-11. Its kind of ironic to have doctors posting on an anonymous internet forum asking for anecdotal experiences from random people to figure out what side effects their kids are having with the vaccine. Reminds me of the number of my patients who refuse to get vaccinated because they know people who died shortly after they were vaccinated. I'm guessing they are all referring to the same people who died right after they were vaccinated, but I can't figure out who they were and how they were all connected to my patients.

s anyone else worried about what the vaccine mandates is going to do to healthcare facilities? I think that we are seeing an 80% vaccination rate amongst staff at our hd units and I have heard of similar numbers at the hospitals. If these nurses/techs/etc quit or are laid off when the medicare deadline occurs, I don't know how we are going to be able to staff these facilities. I'm all for people getting vaccinated but I think these employer vaccine mandates are asinine. If having more people vaccinated is good for the population, why put the onus on employers to get people vaccinated. I would have just had a federal vaccine mandate that maybe had some financial penalty for not getting vaccinated, and maybe a vaccine mandate to travel on planes, go to concerts, etc. You can probably do a cost analysis to figure out how much it costs the healthcare system to be unvaccinated vs vaccinated by looking at the hospitalization/icu rates between the two groups. It's probably a fairly high difference given the cost of some of these covid hospitalizations.

This already happened in New York back in september. Faxing mandate went through and we lost a good 10% of our employees. It was going to be 20% but they temporarily allowed religious exemptions while this was being fought in the court but it appears that those will be going away soon too. It is kind of funny how many people became religious these past few months and now that the exemption is going away many of them are just getting the vaccine anyway but they will be a few that stand for a man either leave or or let go. But at least in the last couple of months we were able to hire to fill some of these gaps.

[nephron]

The reason for mandates in health care settings is so we don't make patients sick. The HD center is full of super high risk immune suppressed people. It would kinda suck to get COVID from a medical center. Also, think about financial risk if the patient died (or spent a month in the ICU) and the family could somehow prove the patient got it from the unvaccinated worker at the HD center. Unlikely, yes, but why take the risk? Also, it's not like vaccine mandates are new in health care. Hep B, influenza, etc.

I know, it is ridiculous how people are all up in arms about getting vaccinated. I agree that patients would likely be benefited from the staff all being vaccinated. I say likely because I imagine that it will take some time for a study to demonstrate this. The issue we are having unrelated to covid or the vaccine is that we do not have staff to take care of patients these days. We are turning away patients from the outpatient units because we do not have the staff to take care of them. We are deferring dialysis or transferring patients because we do not the nurses to dialyze them in the hospitals. My concern is that we do not have the available staff to absorb a 10-20% loss of staff. That's why I wish there would just be a federal mandate because there seems to be a lot of people out there that are quite comfortable quitting and not working rather then be vaccinated.

[Tim]

Anecdotal experience is the largest factor for determining acceptance or rejection of vaccines.
The short term side effects quite honestly are just that. Short term and not sufficient reason for not getting vaccinated. I hope the long term effects of covid infection and vaccination turn out as favorable.
Daughter for some reason did not YET gottten a booster. She is a litttle "under the weather". She found out late Thursday her MA's child tested positive. Getting tested at 11 am this morning. She had the most severe reaction to the vaccines. Probably why she didn't prioritize getting a booster. I can guarantee if it comes back negative, she will get a booster ASAP.
So much is "I heard of" not "my daughter, brother or acquaintance" actually had XYZ. So much of the CDC has been "slanted" by opinions vs unbiased facts. I personally know of not one severe reaction to the vaccines. I hope long term this works out.

[Tim]

I think Covid being a global issue has brought to the front a human governance issue. Most of our discussions have focused domestically and basically thrown shade on the US political environment. Red vs blue and “disinformation” and mandates and restrictions. Unfortunately all the good/bad narratives don’t translate globally. You must do this based on a government decree is running into resistance And it seems to be growing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59363256

Using punitive measures have a lot of unintended negative unintended impacts. Even if people choose to make “stupid decisions”, from a governance standpoint, populations tend to make more bad choices resisting. An “authoritarian” approach eventually breaks or the “resistance” is eradicated. That seems to be the path. I hope governments find a way to make choices more attractive rather than the enforcement path lacking a more convincing option for populations.
Face it, people make “stupid decisions”.
Always have and always will. Accept it and find a better way.

[CordMcNally]

I think Covid being a global issue has brought to the front a human governance issue. Most of our discussions have focused domestically and basically thrown shade on the US political environment. Red vs blue and “disinformation” and mandates and restrictions. Unfortunately all the good/bad narratives don’t translate globally. You must do this based on a government decree is running into resistance And it seems to be growing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59363256

Using punitive measures have a lot of unintended negative unintended impacts. Even if people choose to make “stupid decisions”, from a governance standpoint, populations tend to make more bad choices resisting. An “authoritarian” approach eventually breaks or the “resistance” is eradicated. That seems to be the path. I hope governments find a way to make choices more attractive rather than the enforcement path lacking a more convincing option for populations.
Face it, people make “stupid decisions”.
Always have and always will. Accept it and find a better way.

Color me shocked that after nearly 2 years people are continually getting more tired of restrictions.