Don’t know if anyone who is skeptical about the vaccine is following this thread, but thought something I experienced might be interesting for them concerning possible side effect follow up. I got a Pfizer vaccine last December with the second dose the beginning of January. I registered and filled out all the V Safe questions, initially weekly and then less frequently when they contacted me with them. I just had the yearly follow up sent to me and I completed it and submitted it yesterday. One of the questions was “Have you seem a Dr or sought medical help since your last questionnaire.” I had to see the Dr in August for a transient problem that completely resolved and did not seem in any way connected to the vaccine, especially since it had been over 7 months since my last dose. There is no way of clarifying that on the questionnaire, though, it’s just a yes or no question. Anyway, I just received a phone call from the CDC following up on it and checking if there was any possible link with the vaccine. I hope that might be reassuring to some people, that they are actually checking up on things.

Good decision!

Just saw this on Twitter. Vaccinations looking protective.

To be honest I’m not sure and I don’t think there are many. In ICU it is usually something like they can’t have anything at all PO because of an ileus or a bleed.

Just for the record, where I work we give Covid patients Vit D, Vit C and zinc routinely if not contra indicated for some reason.

First I should say, I have no real opinion on the origins of the SARS-Cov 2 virus. Having said that, it always surprises me that many of the same people who believe it was a biological weapon released by China, are also ‘let er rip’ in regards to Covid over here in the US. That seems illogical to me. If you really think that China has insider knowledge about Covid, you would imagine it would be concerning seeing them take such extreme measures against it.

If you have even numbers, more or less, of vaccinated and unvaccinated hospitalized, but say 80% of your population vaccinated then it would still seem that vaccinations protect against serious illness. Half the hospitalizations are coming from the much smaller 20% unvaccinated portion. It always gets weird to see when you have such a high proportion of vaccinated people.

Could well be true unless it stops them getting other treatments because they are relying solely on the Ivermectin. We just had someone who unfortunately didn’t survive who was treated with Ivermectin by his dr but didn’t get MABs. We’ve had really good results with monoclonals- at least for Delta.

I have heard some people say that difficulty sleeping was a symptom they had when they had Covid.

London Victoria is a huge station and a big hub. I don’t think that happens very often at all but it has been a number of years since I lived in London so I could be wrong about it not happening often these days.

Really pleased if Omicron is less severe because I don’t know what we would do if it wasn’t. There are no beds in many hospitals right now so even if there are only as many as the delta surge, despite way more cases, it will be extremely difficult. And the Delta surge hospitalizations were in summer when occupancy is a lot lower from other things.

I think there is a lot of evidence that the vaccines are preventing a lot of serious illness though. In our ICU over the last few weeks we have had 1 vaccinated person - not sure if boosted - and they were there for a few days, did not get intubated, and were transferred back up to the floor. It’s been a fair while since we lost a vaccinated person. A friends dad, extremely high risk, got Covid shortly after his booster, and he is now fine. She was extremely worried about his chances of surviving if he got sick. Anyway, those are just a few examples, and not hard data, but when you look at the numbers as a whole it is very encouraging regarding serious illness, but, of course, disappointing regarding getting infected.

I think it is this exactly! The thing that causes me the most mental anguish is seeing the reality of Covid in the ICU and then hearing and seeing so many people in my life downplaying or ignoring what is happening. Interestingly, none of these people, despite knowing where I work, ever ask me how things are going there. It’s like you are working frantically in really difficult and heart rending situations and everyone completely ignores that it’s happening. It’s like living in a parallel universe.

@TheReader can you tell me more about being less likely to pass on Omicron if vaccinated? I haven’t seen that mentioned yet, but it is great if that’s so.

I wonder what they are trying to achieve with a further booster. I got a booster because I thought it would maybe stop me getting infected, but I still think I would have been protected against serious illness by the first 2 doses. I’m not sure it will be possible to be protected against Omicron just by vaccination, in terms of getting infected.

It had better be a complete walk in the park then. We are at full capacity most days and have opened an overflow area for floor patients and have a steady stream of Covid still but not a surge right now. Any additional work load at all and it’s hard to see how we will manage. I get called and asked to come in extra almost every day I’m not at work as it is. I’m absolutely hoping for the best. I can’t take the worst anymore.

That is interesting. We’ve had several people off work with flu and I just said to my kids a few days ago that it seemed like the flu shot might not be working this year. Glad that it still seems to protect against severe disease.

We are not in the middle of a Covid surge here at the moment but have a steady number of Covid patients, about 30-40% of the ICU, but we are generally very busy. I get a group text at 5 am every day begging for people to work, and that is with a number of travel nurses still part of the workforce. I don’t think people realize how close to the edge most hospitals are operating, nor how exhausted everyone is because there have only been a week or two of respite here or there. I don’t know what will happen if/when another surge occurs.

This Tweet about the Missouri AG just sums it up. I wish he would be held accountable for his actions, but it will be a cold day in h*ll before he will be in Missouri.

I travelled over to the UK to see my elderly parents in September. I was really anxious about getting them sick because of my work exposure and then the long flight and airport time etc. We all 3 were double vaccinated at that time, my parents and I, but I was nervous for them because of their age. I wore an N95 around them all the time until I got a PCR test on day 2 and then had several negative lateral flow tests. I would test myself every morning when I woke up and wait for a negative result before being near them without a mask. I did have the benefit of their house having radiators, not forced air, so that helped to worry less. It can be done to be very, very safe but it is a lot of work, and the risky person has to be willing to put up with some discomfort. I maybe went overboard but it was the only way I could feel ok about it. It was such a wonderful time with them! Definitely worth it!

It just blows my mind that some places are keeping track of things like this, and I wish I was there. In my state the Attorney General just wrote to all the health departments and school boards etc, threatening to sue them if they enforce any mandates, or impose quarantine, or contact trace anyone. I really can’t believe that is so and that I just wrote that. I can’t do another round of this. If the Omicron variant proves to not be very mild and non dangerous I am quitting my job.

So sorry! Hope he starts to improve quickly!

I’m fairly sure that here we continue to give monoclonal therapy to people whose baseline is to be on oxygen, so long as they meet other criteria. It only makes sense to do so because those are the kind of high risk people that need it.

@lewelma I was wondering if there was talk of people dying from the vaccine in NZ like there is over here in the US. I have not seen that in the hospital I work at but there are plenty of people claiming it is happening, and spreading what I think is misinformation about it. If ever there was a place to watch to find out the truth it would be NZ since you have vaccinated so many so recently.

I think the difference is probably not very great, and both options are good.