To vaccinate or not to vaccinate? That is the question.

@merpreb- Merry, I don't have the link in front of me, but I believe it has been mentioned by the CDC, Transplant articles, and even by Dr Poland that elderly will have lowered response, as will immunosuppressed patients. 30%-40%-45% vs 90%-94% for general population are numbers that i seem to recall.
More important than numbers is that my transplant team says to get the vaccine even if the protection is lower that general population.
Hope this is helpful.

@merpreb- Merry, I don't have the link in front of me, but I believe it has been mentioned by the CDC, Transplant articles, and even by Dr Poland that elderly will have lowered response, as will immunosuppressed patients. 30%-40%-45% vs 90%-94% for general population are numbers that i seem to recall.
More important than numbers is that my transplant team says to get the vaccine even if the protection is lower that general population.
Hope this is helpful.

@jerrynord- Good morning. Can you let us know where you heard this claim of only a 30-40 percent effectiveness for transplanted people?

@jerrynord- Good morning. Can you let us know where you heard this claim of only a 30-40 percent effectiveness for transplanted people?

@merpreb- Merry, I don't have the link in front of me, but I believe it has been mentioned by the CDC, Transplant articles, and even by Dr Poland that elderly will have lowered response, as will immunosuppressed patients. 30%-40%-45% vs 90%-94% for general population are numbers that i seem to recall.
More important than numbers is that my transplant team says to get the vaccine even if the protection is lower that general population.
Hope this is helpful.

Good morning everyone - I think that what we need to keep in mind is that these vaccines are not the be-all or end-all vaccines for this virus. They most likely will be tweaked several times, or maybe a new kind of vaccine against COVID-19 and its variants will be discovered. But! But! This is what we have now and to me as a lung cancer survivor, it's a fine beginning!

Dr. Fauci explained why it's important, imperative to get vaccinated.:

"Vaccines can protect against serious diseases, including hospitalization and death," Fauci said. "They could also keep variants from becoming more dominant."

"Viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate. And if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations," Fauci said.

"You need to get vaccinated when it becomes available as quickly and as expeditiously as possible throughout the country."

Experts remain concerned about the spread of the variants. "Right now we are in an absolute race against time with these variants, with trying to get people vaccinated before they spread too much across our country," said emergency physician Dr. Megan Ranney, director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health in Rhode Island. "It means that just going to the grocery store, to school, or to work could become more dangerous. We have an already overtaxed and exhausted health care system."

Presently there are three variants in the US. We do need to stop them and getting vaccinated will help stop it. Being tested for immunity is a great idea, but will the test include the variants? And will your immune system be able to fight it all?

Oh, my @rosemarya. Those numbers are worse than I had heard, I hope they are not correct. I had heard our immunity would probably be about 65% but if that's from the CDC it probably is closer to what the actual percentage will be.

Also, I found this article interesting - they expect Covid to be seasonal like the flu. When you think of it, it's not too surprising. We would of course have better luck defeating it, if more people would be compliant.
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp
Someone had expressed interest in how my lab work yesterday was. It came back pretty much identical to always. Of course there are minor variations in some of the numbers, but it was right in line with the graph of past results. Definitely no variance from the vaccine though.

The one number I always wonder about and have not really gotten a great answer on, is why my protein always shows low. I eat a lot of protein, even more now that I know I have osteoporosis.. and that protein is as important as calcium, but still, it's slightly lower than the recommended range.
JK

I just read this article in my local email but it's from a news outlet. It has very good info in it. In the lead-in that is not included here, it says the most hesitant to get it are young nurses and black people. I find it interesting that they are the most skeptical.
I was told by a nurse I know that at her hospital a survey was done among the doctors and nurses and just about all of the doctors said they would get it but the percentage of nurses was somewhere around 85%.
https://www.wmur.com/article/if-your-loved-one-is-hesitant-to-get-the-covid-19-vaccine-share-this/35392910
JK

I’m glad your labs were ok; thanks for letting us know. I struggled with very low protein levels in the hospital and after being released even though I was on a feeding tube for two months. I refused to use Ensure as it’s just fortified corn syrup. When I was released from the hospital I started taking Orgain protein drinks, plus protein at meals (I don’t eat beef or pork). Orgain saved me from having to continue on the feeding tube (!!) and helped to bring my protein levels to normal. It’s pricey, but the company frequently offers discounts, as does Amazon. I don’t live near a Costco, but apparently their prices are the lowest.