Coronavirus...post your thoughts here...

[Colin_T]

I love New Zealand, and really love the west coast of the south island

why is that?
no people = no covid?

 

[itiwhetu]

why is that?
no people = no covid?

exactly, love our 10 acres outside of hokitika with no people. Wouldn't swap it for anything on earth.

 

[Essjay]

Most older people I know say they have been vaccinated, but it’s done weird things to their body.

I don't know anyone who has had more than just mild symptoms for a day or two. In my case that was a fuzzy head, slight temperature and feeling tired for 24 hours. My husband had no side effects at all.

The Astra Zeneca vaccine is more of a risk for young people, so in the UK they will be given a different one. The UK is vaccinating people on age grounds and underlying health grounds, so older people and younger people with health issues are being vaccinated first.

The published statistics are for the Astra Zeneca vaccine in the UK are:
20 million doses given
79 people developed clots
19 of those 79 died.
In non-Covid times, it would be expected that 4 in a million people would develop these clots per year.

 

[Colin_T]

My concern with the blood clots is in WA there have been 2 cases and only a few thousand people have been vaccinated. In addition to that, I am on blood thinners for my heart and don't know if that increases or decreases my risk of clots with the vaccine.

 

[Essjay]

We were asked several questions before we were given the vaccine and one of them was if we were taking blood thinning products, so possibly that does cause an issue. We seem to have thrown away the leaflet we were given back 2 months ago.
I have found this on a UK website, see point #4

Warnings and precautions​

Tell your doctor, pharmacist or nurse before vaccination:

• If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) after any other vaccine injection;
• If you currently have a severe infection with a high temperature (over 38°C).
• However, a mild fever or infection, like a cold, are not reasons to delay vaccination;
• If you have a problem with bleeding or bruising, or if you are taking a blood thinning medicine (anticoagulant);
• If your immune system does not work properly (immunodeficiency) or you are taking medicines that weaken the immune system (such as high-dose corticosteroids, immunosuppressants or cancer medicines).
• If you have ever had a blood clot in the sinus veins in the brain, or the autoimmune condition called antiphospholipid syndrome.

If you are not sure if any of the above applies to you, talk to your doctor, pharmacist or nurse before you are given the vaccine.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I don't know anyone who has had more than just mild symptoms for a day or two. In my case that was a fuzzy head, slight temperature and feeling tired for 24 hours. My husband had no side effects at all.

Some people at my work had a fever, stuffed up head, raspy voice, and they felt terrible.

I don’t know, I guess the vaccine has different effects on different people?

 

[Essjay]

That does sound worse than I had.

My almost ex daughter in law had the Pfizer vaccine with no side effects whatsoever, which was surprising as she always felt ill after a flu vaccine.

 

[Krib32]

I think Alaska has something like 39% of its population vaccinated but no one else wants it. They are having all these walk in clinics where anyone can go and get the vaccine without an appointment. I don't see why they are urging it on people who don't wan't the vaccine.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I think Alaska has something like 39% of its population vaccinated but no one else wants it. They are having all these walk in clinics where anyone can go and get the vaccine without an appointment. I don't see why they are urging it on people who don't wan't the vaccine.

Doesn’t Alaska have like 1.3 per square mile?

——

The COVID vaccine isn’t even a real vaccine, by definition. It just changes your RNA, not your DNA. Most people are calling it “gene therapy”.

I’m going through Cellular Reproduction and DNA in my High school Biology right now, and according to my book, it’s not a real vaccine.

——

My family doesn’t want to get the vaccine, because we doubt it even works. Also there’s the issue with the blood clots...

 

[PheonixKingZ]

@Essjay, what version of the “vaccine” are they using up there?

 

[sarabarton76]

I try and avoid these threads to keep me sane, but I feel like I can do a bit of myth busting or useful info sharing (DOI medically qualified and wont be answering specific medical queries)

We do have some evidence the vaccine works - this data from the Zoe app study is useful: https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/covid-vaccines-webinar-hesitancy-efficacy-safety

This is an app in the UK where people log data daily and is the first massive app based study. It has generated a lot of very useful data around symptoms, local rates and the response to various things. It shows much lower rates of covid diagnosis in vaccinated health care professionals (among the first to be jabbed in the UK) compared with those who were not vaccinated.

Data from Israel shows infection rates have plummeted BMJ article Israel - we have also seen changes in critical care admission rates in the UK.

So I am confident the vaccine reduces severity, probably transmission and contributes to overall immunity. We don't know for sure how long immunity lasts, whether we will be covered for variants etc. This is likely to be similar to flu - we will need repeat vaccines based on prevalent strains and will take the variants into account.

In terms of risk from the AZ vaccine - these infographics are really useful:

It's not that the AZ vaccine is worse in younger people, its about the balance of risk to benefit. As a younger person your risk of going to ICU with covid is really low - so on balance the risk of vaccine harm is higher. If you are 60-69 then the risk to you massively outweighed by the risk of covid. Its less pronounced in higher exposure groups

The overall risk of clots is complex - the clots that have been flagged with the AZ vaccine are pretty rare indeed. However other types of clot are associated with covid - these kill too. The overall risk of clots is way lower than with lots of things that people take routine ie the contraceptive pill. It's only because of the intense scrutiny these vaccines are under that this has been picked up relatively early - many drugs don't have such a "big bang" launch and it takes time to find issues

IN terms of vaccine side effects - they seem to be more common in younger people but interestingly have no correlation to how well the vaccine works. At first we were worried that young people felt ill because they were responding well - but antibody studies show both groups responded similarly. AZ seems to create more symptoms after the first dose than Pfizer - I'm only just getting used to the Moderna and have no clinical experience of the others in use around the world.

I had pfizer - sore arm for first and just desperately tired after the second. So glad I am vaccinated.

This has been a really difficult time - its been very hard to provide care for anyone. I get that its hard to fully appreciate the scale of this if your freedoms are curtailed and your experiences have seen a lot of covid - but I hope most people can believe me when I say you don't want covid. I hope that everywhere can get on top of its vaccination programmes - I worry that vaccine nationalism is a problem and this is becoming too political.

Please if you get the chance, get the jab. A couple of paracetamol/ acetominophen will cover most side effects

 

[Essjay]

what version of the “vaccine” are they using up there?

The first to be approved here was the Pfizer vaccine, so most of the early immunisations were done with this one. Then the Astra Zeneca one was approved. The Moderna one is the most recent one to be approved. There are two more in the pipeline - Novovax (which will be made about 10 miles from where I live) and Janssen.

 

[Essjay]

@sarabarton76 Because I had side effects, albeit very mild ones, I filled in the 'yellow card' form on-line.
All I did was take paracetamol and I was fine after 24 hours.

 

[sarabarton76]

@sarabarton76 Because I had side effects, albeit very mild ones, I filled in the 'yellow card' form on-line.
All I did was take paracetamol and I was fine after 24 hours.

and thats exactly what we need to see happen - anyone can fill one. Crowdsourced medical info has been a massive step forward during the pandemic. I'm getting people to do it too - though cant really report feeling tired I've got people with site reactions etc to do it. Its an opportunity to know exactly the side effect profile of a treatment, and may help us promote the yellow card system generally.

So thanks for doing and mentioning

 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

according to my book, it’s not a real vaccine.

They need to give you a better book.