I am trying to feel out if anyone else has declined the Covid vaccine and feeling backlash or tension with other co-workers? I have never heard so much discussion regarding nurse receiving or declining a vaccine in the 12 years I've been a nurse. Not sure why it should even matter but, I am getting a lot of pressure about it. I do not see why I am "crazy " if I made the decision against receiving the vaccine. I also do not understand co-workers pushing the vaccine on me and others, or insisting we are out of our minds. This is coming from management level as well as staff nurses. I am just appalled at the treatment and many of us who have declined the vaccine have kept to ourselves. For me, personally, I made the choice not to get it and I was done at that. It's been a month into our hospital vaccines and people will not just shut up about it.
I guess this long answer is out of the extreme frustration & helpless feeling we all have; these directives come from the health dept & way above the local level so we have no control over the issues I’ve listed above.
Thank you for all you do in caring for such a vulnerable population. Yes, I agree, public health guidelines will need to be updated as more people get vaccinated, and hopefully some studies can demonstrate reduced transmission after vaccination.
A couple of questions for you: How many patient deaths have occurred since they were vaccinated? Has the number of positive staff members gone since some took the vaccine?
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
4 hours ago, CrunchRN said:
I had zero side effects with Moderna 1 and Moderna 2 felt like a mild flu, but a couple Ibuprofen mitigated 80% of those symptoms within hours.
I will happily take those side effects vs Covid.
I am four weeks (as of today) past the second dose of the Moderna vaccine. I had nothing from the first vaccine, and some mild arm soreness (but no symptoms whatsoever) from the second dose. At 94 percent protection I like my odds. Sitting at the lower end of the high risk age group, when my employer offered the vaccine, my only question was "Where do I sign up?" The excuse I hear most often from the people who I work with is that they are young and healthy and unlikely to have major side effects. Of course, this does nothing to prevent them from giving it to someone who would fare much worse.
It is getting very annoying with pushy friends etc about getting vaccinated,questioning why my relatives don't drive me take me etc. My area has had the worst distribution and set up, it takes forever to get an appointment for weeks later. I never said I would not get it but I see no need to stress out over finding a place appointment in some remote town on weird hours. I have enough stress already ,when the right place has the vaccine and appointments I will set it up,mean while just please leave me alone!
For me, personally, I made the choice not to get it and I was done at that. It's been a month into our hospital vaccines and people will not just shut up about it.
Is anyone else experiencing anything like this?
don't know ,people still won't shut up about Trump either,sighhhh human nature I guess.
Covid-19 will become endemic but with decreased potency over time, scientists believe
BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n494 (Published 18 February 2021)Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n494
...The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus will not be eradicated but will become endemic, continuing to circulate in pockets of the global population for years to come and causing outbreaks in regions where it had been eliminated, scientists working in the field believe.
But the impact of the virus on the world in terms of deaths, illness, and the need for social isolation will lessen, they say, as more of the population acquires some immunity to it through exposure to the virus or from vaccination.
The predictions come from a survey carried out in January by the journal Nature of more than 100 immunologists, infectious disease researchers, and virologists working on SARS-CoV-2.1 Almost 90% of respondents said that they expected the coronavirus to become endemic, although more than a third thought that it would be possible to eliminate SARS-CoV-2 from some regions of the world.
While there would be a continual risk of covid-19 outbreaks in areas where the virus had been eliminated, these could be stifled quickly by herd immunity if most people had been vaccinated, said Christopher Dye, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, UK. He told Nature, “I guess covid will be eliminated from some countries, but with a continuing and maybe seasonal risk of reintroduction from places where vaccine coverage and public health measures have not been good enough.”
Covid-19 is still classed as in a pandemic phase because infections continue to increase worldwide and many people are still susceptible. In an endemic phase the number of infections becomes relatively constant across years, with occasional flare-ups.
Antibodies and reinfection
Over time covid-19 could become a disease first encountered in early childhood, when it would typically cause mild infection or none at all, Jennie Lavine, an infectious disease researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, USA, told Nature. Although that defence would wane quickly and not be sufficient to block reinfection entirely, it could be enough to protect adults experiencing severe symptoms.
Scientists consider this scenario likely because it matches four existing endemic coronaviruses—OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1—but it is not certain. A large study has shown that levels of neutralising antibodies start to decline after around six to eight months after infection with SARS-CoV-2.2 If a new infection arises, memory B cells can manufacture antibodies and T cells that can eliminate virus infected cells, but it has yet to be established whether this immune memory can block viral reinfection.
It could take years or even decades to reach a state where enough of the population has sufficient immunity, Lavine added. Allowing the virus to spread unchecked would be the fastest way to get to that point, but it would result in many millions of deaths, so the most palatable path is through vaccination, she said.
If vaccines do block transmission and are effective against newer variants it may be possible to achieve herd immunity in regions where enough people are vaccinated. A model developed by Alexandra Hogan at Imperial College London and her colleagues showed that a vaccine that is 90% effective would need to reach at least 55% coverage to achieve temporary herd immunity with some social distancing measures, such as face masks and many people working from home.3 The same vaccine would need 67% coverage to provide herd immunity if all social distancing measures were lifted—and even higher levels if the vaccine was less than 90% effective at blocking transmission or if transmission increased because of a new variant.
Already, preprint results from laboratory studies suggest that neutralising antibodies in the blood of people who have had covid-19 are less capable of recognising a viral variant first identified in South Africa (called 501Y.V2) than variants that circulated earlier in the pandemic.4
More than 70% of the researchers surveyed by Nature believed that the ability to adapt and evade immune defences would drive continued circulation of SARS-CoV-2. As a result, updated vaccines may need to be developed and administered, possibly every year like the flu vaccine.
The future impact of SARS-CoV-2 will also depend on how well it establishes itself in a wild animal population. Several diseases that have been brought under control, including yellow fever, Ebola, and chikungunya virus, persist because of animal reservoirs. SARS-CoV-2 probably originated in bats and can readily infect many animals, including cats, rabbits, and hamsters, and it is particularly infectious in mink.
Let's hope the data reflects a reduction in serious illness and death as expected.
Specializes in Educator, COVID Paperwork Expert (self-taught).
1 hour ago, Daisy Joyce said:
Has there been another vaccine where people still had to wear masks and social distance from *everybody* before?
Long term care Infection Control nurse here-we had a staff member—routine testing, no symptoms—test positive yesterday. All staff have been wearing masks & goggles for almost a year. All the residents on the hall she worked on yesterday have received both vaccines, more than 2 weeks ago. Guidelines forced us to put all of the residents on that hall into isolation—no leaving their rooms for 2 weeks, all direct caregivers wearing N95 masks & gown & gloves when going into their rooms. No more family visits. No going out in the hall. No going to the dining room.
No residents on ANY hall can go to the dining room—we had opened modified dining last month, where where we had one resident at a table & tables 6 feet apart. There’s no end insight with these restrictions, no matter what we do.
Specializes in Educator, COVID Paperwork Expert (self-taught).
9 hours ago, nursej22 said:
Thank you for all you do in caring for such a vulnerable population. Yes, I agree, public health guidelines will need to be updated as more people get vaccinated, and hopefully some studies can demonstrate reduced transmission after vaccination.
A couple of questions for you: How many patient deaths have occurred since they were vaccinated? Has the number of positive staff members gone since some took the vaccine?
Thank you! I do truly love my job! We have had no cases of resident Covid since full vaccination—but keep in mind we’re a fairly small facility—approx 110 residents. We had our big surge back in October where about 32 residents got COVID. Severity ranged from absolutely no symptoms at all, mild symptoms (these two categories were by far the majority), several hospitalized (have since almost fully recovered), & several deaths. We also suspect Covid might have gone thru the facility in Nov/Dec of 2019-2020, before “Covid” was know .
Oct was also the month w/the most staff positives, probably around 20. Again, wide range of severity but no hospitalizations or deaths. Since vaccinations we’ve had 3-4 positive staff members. Not sure if any received the vaccine. All were asymptomatic; 1-2 had very mild symptoms & the rest no symptoms at all.
Because of the positive staff member, all residents in the facility will be tested twice in the next week. As almost every resident has been fully vaccinated, it will be very interesting to see if any are positive!
nursej22, MSN, RN
4,844 Posts
Thank you for all you do in caring for such a vulnerable population. Yes, I agree, public health guidelines will need to be updated as more people get vaccinated, and hopefully some studies can demonstrate reduced transmission after vaccination.
A couple of questions for you: How many patient deaths have occurred since they were vaccinated? Has the number of positive staff members gone since some took the vaccine?