COVID-19 Vaccine Repellent: Understandable and Irrational | Wellness

Life is about taking profitable and calculated risks.

For example, car accidents are so common and often fatal (about 50,000 deaths per year) that the law requires drivers to take out car insurance for financial protection. Still, fast and convenient transportation is essential to modern life, so most people don’t worry about the possibility of a crash when jumping into a car.

Some risks are counterintuitive. For example, prostate cancer screening saves lives until it becomes clear that many men are at risk for urine and sexual dysfunction to treat minor malignancies detected by PSA testing. Was advertised as.

There is a risk that they are far away and the rewards are much higher, but many people don’t see it that way.

Yes, we are talking about COVID-19 vaccination.

Pandemics kill about 570,000 people in the United States, or one in 600. Millions of people who have recovered from COVID-19, including those who are not ill enough to be hospitalized, suffer from physical, mental and neurological sequelae and are at increased risk of death. Public health officials around the world agree that vaccination is the only way to turn this terrible trend.

Still, research shows that most Americans are one of three licensed vaccines, even though they are far more effective and safer than public health professionals wanted a year ago. Hesitate or refuse to get it altogether.

Part of the resistance is political. 40% of Republicans consistently tell voters that they are not planning vaccinations. However, many other factors also play a role, such as false beliefs and bowel emotions. Consider that nearly half of front-line healthcare professionals (those who have seen the devastation of COVID-19 directly) have not yet been vaccinated.

“This is a classic example of human irrationality in risk,” wrote the New York Times columnist David Leonhardt recently. “We often underestimate large-scale, chronic risks such as car accidents and chemical pollution, and stick to small but significant risks such as plane crashes and shark attacks.”

Dr. Robert Selig, a Philadelphia pediatrician, believes there is deliberate ignorance behind some opt-outs. A 25-year-old patient, who has known since the birth of Serig, declared that he was not vaccinated due to his low risk of severe COVID-19 and heard that the mRNA vaccine could damage his gene. I did. ..

“I wanted to say,’It’s ridiculous,'” recalled Selig, head of Andorra’s pediatrics department. “I tried to explain its importance: not only is he infected with the virus, but it is also spreading the virus to people who may get sick. His age and intelligence is that. I was surprised to hear that he was talking like this. “

Historical chronicles show that vaccine skepticism is as old as vaccines. The first smallpox vaccine made from pus from cowpox blisters was welcomed and cursed in the late 1700s.

The first polio vaccine introduced in 1954 was an exception to this pattern of ambivalence, as parents were desperate to protect their babies and children from the deadly illnesses that paralyze them. But even that breakthrough quickly aroused distrust. Defective vaccine batches resulted in 40,000 polio cases, forcing authorities to suspend mass vaccination programs.

With all that in mind, the hesitation for COVID-19 vaccination is understandable. Vaccinations are new, coronaviruses are mutated to avoid them, and there is no complete medical intervention.

But given the devastating human, economic, and emotional sacrifices of a pandemic, what we can understand is not the same as rational.

As good as it gets

In December, US regulators approved the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna two-shot regimen. Both use mRNA technology. (The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, approved in late February, got off to a good start, which we’ll discuss in more detail later.)

Compared to placebo, both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 in clinical trials. With the advent of partially resistant strains of coronavirus, companies have begun to work on booster shots, but in actual use the shots were about as good.

The COVID-19 vaccine is very effective. This is the true meaning of the numbers. Approximately 134 million people (41% of the US population) roll up their sleeves with at least one dose, including 87 million who are currently fully vaccinated. Hundreds of millions of doses are administered worldwide, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to CDC data, two-thirds of older people are fully vaccinated, hospitalizations have plummeted by 70%, and deaths have fallen by 50% since the beginning of the year.

The safety profile, on the other hand, is at its best unless you consider arm pain or malaise to be dangerous. Indeed, these two vaccines are new and new, and regulators around the world are monitoring for signs of harm. However, in a clinical trial enrolling 60,000 volunteers, only five suffered serious side effects that could be caused by the vaccine. Pfizer’s shots were associated with cases of shoulder injuries and transient lymphadenopathy. Moderna was associated with two cases of uncontrolled vomiting and facial swelling in people who received cosmetic facial injections.

Most volunteers had mild injection site pain and at least one temporary systemic reaction, usually malaise.

After the vaccine was deployed, a rare, serious but easily treatable allergic reaction was observed. A February report from JAMA Network found that 66 people were suffering from anaphylaxis. In the case of Pfizer, there are 4.7 cases per million times, and in the case of Moderna, there are 2.5 cases per million times. This is why you should wait 15-30 minutes after the injection to make sure you don’t need an injection of epinephrine.

Despite the horrors on social media, there is no evidence that the vaccine causes infertility, shingles, or sudden death.

Break through the breakthrough

Despite the establishment of coronavirus-resistant strains in the United States, “breakthrough” infections (obtaining COVID-19 despite vaccination) are extremely rare. Last month, the CDC reported 5,800 breakthrough infections among 75 million fully vaccinated people. Most cases were mild, but 396 people, including 74 who died, required hospitalization. Remember that even these vaccines are not 100% effective. Therefore, it is recommended to continue masking and distance.

The potential for this vaccine to fail is horrifying and even tragic for the affected people. However, calculations show that the risk of COVID-19 dying after vaccination is .0001%, or about one millionth. The CDC estimates that it is likely to be hit by a lightning strike within a year.

In contrast, the CDC estimates for every one million unvaccinated infected people: 500 people aged 18-49 have died. 6,000 people aged 50-64 died. And 90,000 elderly people died.

The J & J vaccine is slightly less effective than the mRNA vaccine, but requires only one inoculation and is easy to store.

Approximately 7.9 million Americans fired before federal health officials “suspended” their use as the vaccine surveillance system detected eight cases of catastrophic blood coagulation disorders (one fatal) ..

The case number was recently updated to 15 at a meeting of the Federal Vaccine Advisory Board, but the panel recommended resuming use of the J & J vaccine, the CDC immediately agreed, and the latest product label on coagulopathy. I issued a warning. The panel was dependent on the CDC model, and it was estimated that for every million people who took J & J shots, thousands of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths could be prevented and a large number of coagulation cases could occur.

Pediatrician Selig and the nurse’s wife, Chandy, who works with him, were infected with COVID-19 in January before being vaccinated. His wife is still working on sequelae, a chronic cough. Reluctantly, the couple finds themselves at the forefront of the fight against vaccine evasion.

“It’s very difficult to discuss and reason with people,” Selig said. “They have their own ideas that have no scientific basis. We spend a lot of time convincing people. It’s like hitting your head against a wall.”