COVID-19 vaccines: medical concerns and recommendations

[peterb]

I'm beginning to think that the mRNA vacs either don't do a damn thing for omicron or they are very very short lived.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/...cid=mm7104e3_x

Short version: Vaccines are effective at reducing severity of Omicron infection. Less effective at preventing infection.

[HeavyDuty]

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/...cid=mm7104e3_x

Short version: Vaccines are effective at reducing severity of Omicron infection. Less effective at preventing infection.

I’ll take it.

[HeavyDuty]

I was finally able to get a PCR scheduled for tomorrow. I’m really curious if it shows anything - I was pretty sick a few weeks ago. I wouldn’t cry if it shows positive and that was a very mild bout.

[Paul Blackburn]

Thus far they have proven 100% unnecessary for my entire family. We've all had the rona, treated it with vitamin C, D3, Zinc, and Quercetin and shook it off like a cold.

Also never took the PCR test. We suspected we had it and a few weeks later verified with the antibody test at labcorp.

Other than seeing people in masks the last 2 years nothing ever change for us. We've gone about our lives as normal. No mask, no hand sanitizer, none of it.

We do have several extended family members with adverse reactions to the vaccine and at least one death, plus they still got virus.

[David S.]

Thus far they have proven 100% unnecessary for my entire family. We've all had the rona, treated it with vitamin C, D3, Zinc, and Quercetin and shook it off like a cold.

Also never took the PCR test. We suspected we had it and a few weeks later verified with the antibody test at labcorp.

Other than seeing people in masks the last 2 years nothing ever change for us. We've gone about our lives as normal. No mask, no hand sanitizer, none of it.

You're one of the lucky 99%.

[Clusterfrack]

A reminder about the focus of this thread:

This is a new thread continuing the discussion started in the now closed COVID VACCINE thread.

Please limit discussion in this thread to medical concerns and recommendations related to COVID-19 vaccines. Literature citations and conclusions based on legitimate medical and/or scientific expertise are encouraged.

There is another thread for discussion of political issues and concerns related to COVID-19 vaccines.

[Nephrology]

I was finally able to get a PCR scheduled for tomorrow. I’m really curious if it shows anything - I was pretty sick a few weeks ago. I wouldn’t cry if it shows positive and that was a very mild bout.

the PCR based tests tend to be highly sensitive but not terribly specific for active infection

[Nephrology]

My sister and BIL both have it right now. Both have been vaccinated. My daughter also has it right now and she's been vaccinated and boosted. All got vaccinated with mRNA. In my daughter's case, she is a neonatal flight transport nurse and she's in various ERs around the state and neighboring states pretty much daily. One in particular is where she thinks she picked it up. Several trips through there and even two in one day. That ER was overflowed into the halls and has been for a couple of weeks now. She said she figured she was going to pick something up being there so frequently with that patient load. I'm beginning to think that the mRNA vacs either don't do a damn thing for omicron or they are very very short lived.

So far evidence suggests that immunity wanes somewhat quickly. It also seems like Omicron is antigenically different enough from earlier clades of COVID (i.e. it "looks different" enough to your immune system) that both previous vaccination and previous infection are less protective. Still all things being equal, it is better to have recent vaccination/infection vs not if exposed, as balance of evidence suggests symptoms are much less severe.

Personally I am immunocompromised and vaccinated x4 per most recent CDC recs, got Pfizer for all of them. Most recently in mid/late December. In hospitals all day every day and did a bunch of traveling to visit family over winter holidays, no issues. Was exposed via sister a day before she/her fiance tested positive and had one day of symptoms (sniffles) so maybe was infected? Nobody in the household was noticeably symptomatic. Maybe just luck but the vaccines have helped me personally despite being at risk

Hospitals are a shitshow right now. Staffing is extremely thin, everyone is very fed up and tired, between COVID and then backed up demand for all other medical services the supply/demand mismatch is extreme particularly in certain areas/geographic locales. It's bad.

[TheNewbie]

My sister and BIL both have it right now. Both have been vaccinated. My daughter also has it right now and she's been vaccinated and boosted. All got vaccinated with mRNA. In my daughter's case, she is a neonatal flight transport nurse and she's in various ERs around the state and neighboring states pretty much daily. One in particular is where she thinks she picked it up. Several trips through there and even two in one day. That ER was overflowed into the halls and has been for a couple of weeks now. She said she figured she was going to pick something up being there so frequently with that patient load. I'm beginning to think that the mRNA vacs either don't do a damn thing for omicron or they are very very short lived.

It’s stories like that help reassure me that I’ve made proper health choices ,*for me*, over the last two years. Maybe just luck, but it seems there are more than one way to handle this.

[JDB]

A reminder about the focus of this thread:

Fair enough.

My concern about the vaccine is less about severe adverse reactions, and more about the effect on the strength of my immune system in the long term.

I just got over Omicron, tested positive Monday. I felt mildly sick for Sunday night and then Monday, after just coming out of a 5 day field problem. My symptoms were a scratchy (not sore) throat, come congestion, and some fatigue, very slight headache. No fever, aches, chills, loss of taste, etc. I figured it was Omicron, because it was running rampant in my battalion.

I'm 46, unvaccinated, no previous infection (though HEAVILY exposed to prior variants). I took Ivermectin Sunday and Monday when I got back and suspected I had COVID. Tuesday morning, I woke up feeling good and went to the gym. Then walked 4 miles. Then shoveled snow for an hour. Wed I XC skied for an hour, felt fine. Finally got my positive test results back last night.

I have taken COVID seriously, and have taken long term precautions. Heavy Vit D supplementation (and banking sunlight exposure), vit C, zinc, quercetin, vit K, Melatonin, prophylactic Ivermectin during Delta. Masks seem like a waste of time, so I mostly avoid them. I take sleep, exercise, getting outside, and especially diet very very seriously. In normal life, I very rarely get sick (which is totally different than 5 years ago), and never sick enough to be incapable of work.

It seemed like I was incapable of getting COVID until Omicron.

All of this is to demonstrate that my immune system seems to have worked extremely well the last few years. I'm not against the COVID vaccines BTW. For those at risk, they seem to have been a godsend. I'm glad my mom got it. Maybe less useful now with Omicron, but probably still saving lives and reducing suffering.

But for those like myself, at very low risk of serious illness from infection, it's not at all clear to me that the (probably unknowable) risks from the vaccines is worth the reward.

So far, it appears things have worked out in an ideally for me....very mild illness, and presumably gained excellent long term immunity. Maybe I'm just lucky.

I can't help wonder what the vaccines would "train" my immune system to do in the long term, vs the training from a mild COVID infection.. Again, fortunately my infection was really mild. I don't recommend everyone go and get infected. But I also can't see how everyone getting vaccinated is an unqualified good either. Seems to me the best possible outcome would be to have the the largest possible number of folks like myself developing strong natural immunity while avoiding harm from serious infection.
I suspect the vaccination may not be helping much with long term, robust, durable immunity.



Also, I do wonder what the true risk of heart problems is from vaccination. Not just from the full-on, 1-in-some thousand risk of clinical myocarditis, but from the risks coming things like "mild", subclinical heart inflammation. I have a couple fellow athlete friends now that noticed (relatively minor, but noticeable) heart problems for several weeks after vaccination, which VAERS and their doctor didn't pick up. They aren't anti COVID-vax BTW. Pretty hard for me to discount their experience, just because "The Science, ™" hasn't captured that data yet.