COVID-19 vaccines: medical concerns and recommendations

[Nephrology]

Im at the VA where we have an open ICU so gotten to finally see ICU COVID patients up close. Compassionately extubated two in a 12 hour span Sun→Mon AM. A lot coming down from montana. Most unvaccinated but at least 1 guy fully vaccinated but he was older (80), had a few other health problems typical for his age. He survived the initial infection but had essentially no pulmonary reserve and ultimately kept inching towards the vent which he did not want. His whole family (a dozen or more) came up and he passed at bedside, essentially dying of respiratory failure in front of his family while our phenomenal RNs kept him as comfortable as possible with morphine and ativan until his heart had stopped.

Today we intubated a 60 year old guy who was in amazing shape, literally had sent him home several days ago. On rounds had commented that i hope I look as good as he does at his age. Really fit. Unvaccinated.

Definitely made a pretty big impression. I rotate off the service in a week and will go to primary care clinic for two months but definitely something I'll remember for a while. Definitely get the vaccine. Anecodtally the pfizer/moderna seem better than J&J but any vax is better than none very clearly.

[Leroy Suggs]

We just got home from getting the Moderna booster. Today was the first day it was released.
Got the senior flu shot too.

[Balisong]

Got my Pfizer booster a week and a half ago, just like the 1st 2 I had no side effects. I rubbed the injection site more aggressively the 2nd and 3rd times and both times had less next day soreness in that arm than the 1st time.

[Unobtanium]

Im at the VA where we have an open ICU so gotten to finally see ICU COVID patients up close. Compassionately extubated two in a 12 hour span Sun→Mon AM. A lot coming down from montana. Most unvaccinated but at least 1 guy fully vaccinated but he was older (80), had a few other health problems typical for his age. He survived the initial infection but had essentially no pulmonary reserve and ultimately kept inching towards the vent which he did not want. His whole family (a dozen or more) came up and he passed at bedside, essentially dying of respiratory failure in front of his family while our phenomenal RNs kept him as comfortable as possible with morphine and ativan until his heart had stopped.

Today we intubated a 60 year old guy who was in amazing shape, literally had sent him home several days ago. On rounds had commented that i hope I look as good as he does at his age. Really fit. Unvaccinated.

Definitely made a pretty big impression. I rotate off the service in a week and will go to primary care clinic for two months but definitely something I'll remember for a while. Definitely get the vaccine. Anecodtally the pfizer/moderna seem better than J&J but any vax is better than none very clearly.

Ive worked covid wards since 2019. Genpop just isn't qualified to understand this virus, especially when they're so full of YouTube and Alex Jones. I stopped being a free infomercial. Let em do and believe as they will.

[RoyGBiv]

Wife and I were shopping at Wally World this morning and she stopped by the pharmacy to get her annual flu shot. Pharmacist asked us about the COVID booster. We told him we were waiting for Moderna. He said that as of 9am yesterday they were doing both Moderna and Phizer boosters. So, we did. Hopefully tomorrow won't be as crappy as vax 2,but, worth it regardless.

Only remaing question currently is whether my son, when eligible, should get a Phizer booster to match his first 2,or, get the Moderna, which appears to be the better vax long term and against Delta.

Where's that "Convince me I'm wrong" meme?

[blues]

I'm going to hold off on the booster for the 65 and older crowd for the time being...

I've had the two Moderna jabs...and my training / workouts and all is going fine, but every now and again I feel a little "flutter" for a second, and all this talk about myocarditis has me nervous...despite my not being the "age group".

It's probably just reading the back and forth generated by Newb's posts...but then you never know. (The flutter is not when working out...but only been noticed when I'm sitting in front of the laptop.)

[HCM]

Genpop just isn't qualified to understand this virus, especially when they're so full of YouTube and Alex Jones. I stopped being a free infomercial.

This ^^^ is gold.

[RoyGBiv]

Wife and I were shopping at Wally World this morning and she stopped by the pharmacy to get her annual flu shot. Pharmacist asked us about the COVID booster. We told him we were waiting for Moderna. He said that as of 9am yesterday they were doing both Moderna and Phizer boosters. So, we did. Hopefully tomorrow won't be as crappy as vax 2,but, worth it regardless.

FWIW.... Barely any injection site soreness this morning and just a low-level body ache that was solved with 600mg of Acetaminophen. Planning to head to the gym after catching up on the usual Monday morning work stuff. Very happy to, so far, have avoided the 24 hours of yuck from vax 2. Hopefully this post doesn't jinx it.

[idahojess]

FWIW.... Barely any injection site soreness this morning and just a low-level body ache that was solved with 600mg of Acetaminophen. Planning to head to the gym after catching up on the usual Monday morning work stuff. Very happy to, so far, have avoided the 24 hours of yuck from vax 2. Hopefully this post doesn't jinx it.

I'll let a few of you others go first -- the second M shot kicked my ass in April, and lingered for a while. But I like the idea of a smaller dose.

Speaking of waning effectiveness, this non-peer reviewed study of VA patients was interesting (J&J yikes!):

Specifically, in March, protection against infection was: 88% (95% CI, 87% to 89%) for Janssen; 92% (95% CI, 92% to 93%) for Moderna; and 91% (95% CI, 91% to 92%) for Pfizer-BioNTech. By August, protection against infection had declined to: 3% (95% CI, -7% to 12%) for Janssen; 64% (95% CI, 62%-66%) for Moderna; and 50% (95% CI, 47% to 52%) for Pfizer-BioNTech.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...66v1.full-text

Maybe Pangloss and Neph and others have some thoughts on it.

[RoyGBiv]

I'll let a few of you others go first -- the second M shot kicked my ass in April, and lingered for a while. But I like the idea of a smaller dose.

Speaking of waning effectiveness, this non-peer reviewed study of VA patients was interesting (J&J yikes!):

Specifically, in March, protection against infection was: 88% (95% CI, 87% to 89%) for Janssen; 92% (95% CI, 92% to 93%) for Moderna; and 91% (95% CI, 91% to 92%) for Pfizer-BioNTech. By August, protection against infection had declined to: 3% (95% CI, -7% to 12%) for Janssen; 64% (95% CI, 62%-66%) for Moderna; and 50% (95% CI, 47% to 52%) for Pfizer-BioNTech.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...66v1.full-text

Maybe Pangloss and Neph and others have some thoughts on it.

Moderna 2 for me was 12 hours of nothing, then ~6 hours swapping between full-body shuddering chills and then puddling sweats. Rinse. Repeat.
Then 12 more hours or so of feeling less crappy, but still crappy. Not fun, but, worth it.

I was prepared for the same today.

Moderna 3 has been none of that. Just a slightly sore arm and slightly sore-all-over feeling this morning. Managed a good gym workout after some Acetaminophen. Feeling like I would benefit from another round of it this afternoon (slightly warm and a little tired), but, probably will skip it.

Sample size of 1...

I got vaxxed early on doing volunteer work. Those VA numbers make me glad of 2 things... 1. I sought out Moderna after an earlier opportunity for Phizer and 2. That I got the booster, since it's been ~8 months since vax 2. 3% for J&J is pretty awful for COVID, but, seems consistent with seasonal flu protection after a similar time period. We purposely wait until October at the earliest to get flu shots here.