Posted on 12/17/2020 2:31:22 PM PST by gas_dr
I was asked by several Freepers to post a thread once I have received my Pfizer Corona Virus Vaccine. As many of you know, I am a critical care physician in a large city environment. We have been having a surge for the last several weeks.
I received the Vaccine this morning at 7:56 AM. I was the third physician outside of the large academic center in town to receive the vaccine. Our hospital system had the vaccine released it first as we are the largest non-academic system in the city.
Prequel: I have been on experimental prophylaxis combination for health care workers since March. I have been taking part in a study sanctioned by an IRB and been administered a protocol of medications on a daily an weekly basis. In my practice, I currently have had well over 1500 encounters with CoVID patients in the hospital setting, have had responsibility for the surge CoVID unit in July, and now again this month. I have completed numerous airway interventions on CoVID patients and some how managed to never contract the virus.
My hospital system has genuinely taken exceptional care of its HCW and employees and I am lucky as we have never lacked for PPE, made significant reuses of PPE, and was actually provided a P100 mask fit for me by the hospital. All of my colleague received the same.
I was contacted by the system chief medical officer on Monday and the department chair on Tuesday that I was considered 1A in terms of priority as were roughly 18 of my physician colleagues. Critical care nurses and anyone in any of our critical care units were also contacted. I was told to arrive at 745 this AM.
EVENT: I arrived and underwent a very streamlined check in process, gave written informed consent that was not unusual in any way. Acknowledged that this was a vaccine being administered under EUA conditions. The media was out in force as this was the first private hospital as previously said that was inoculating its staff.
I was called third stepped up and underwent the most routine of injections. The vaccination was administered into my left deltoid, a quantity of approximately 0.3 cc on a 30 g needle. To say I felt nothing would be absolutely true. There was absolutely pain. I was asked to wait in an observed seating area for 20 minutes after my vaccine and then released.
Over the course of the day, I have developed very mild muscle pain in the left arm. It is not at all limiting in anyway. I have had no other symptoms. We were told that approximately 6% of patients develop very low grade symptoms.
I was given my CDC vaccination card and read every word of it. It states that this card is an record of administration, the lot number, date and time of vaccine was recorded. It says to please present this card to my primary care provider at my net appointment for addition to my medical record. There is absolutely nothing on this card that says or implies that I should maintain it on my person. as a record.
I was scheduled for follow up booster in 19 - 21 days. When I left, I cannot quantify the wave of relief and genuine happiness that I had. I was reflecting that in 7 days, I would not longer have to personally worry about this disease causing a tragic outcome in me personally. I also was overjoyed that the means in 7 - 10 days I will no longer be a threat to my family, my elderly parents, and I won't have to get any further CoVID tests.
Like as been said in the media and by President Trump and Pence. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and there is hope that this is the beginning of the end. I genuinely felt that and continue to feel it. As I have said before, this represents the Manhattan project of the 21st century. I am proud to be a recipient of this vaccine, and grateful for the President who made this happen in 10 months. They said it couldn't happen. They were wrong. I will continue to update how I feel, and the next round in early January
To all Freepers out there -- be well, stay safe and Merry Christmas.
Thank you for the compliment & Thank you Doctor for what you do & Merry Christmas. I have been a fan going back to when you were posting about not only Covi but RGB going to the hospital and being airlifted to another one about this time last yr immic. Roger that on you last sentence....
AAhhh.. Now I get it.....that’s embarrassing, that I’m the one being obtuse! Good reply!
I had never even heard of that word until I read a story about Russian Doctors falling/jumping/pushed out of windows.
” The vaccine is the one that has been developed in Russia. It is in 6 different stages “
It was developed in Europe by Pfizer and partner BioNTech.
What are the 6 different stages?
They did use the hek293 cell line in testing. Reference given in #30.
“...No — what we have discovered is the antibodies from the acute phase disease only stay around 3 months or so. But there is excellent basic science literature to demonstrate that there is T-cell (memory) immunity. This is a big deal. This is what confers life long immunity. If after 3 months people were again susceptible we would see it all over the place and particularly the media as it would be used to eviscerate President trump.
There have been rare reports of possible reinfection, all of which are disproved. The vaccine itself is 95% effective precisely because it generates T-cell immunity. That was the most exciting finding in Phase II and III clinical trials.
I advised my 80 something year old mother who had the wild type disease not to bother getting vaccinated....”
That’s exactly what I was looking for.
I definitely do NOT want to go thru a repeat of that wonderful “experience”...it’s some nasty crap.
Again, thank you so much, and please keep us all posted how the booster goes. God bless you and your frontline team.
Thanks Doc. This is good stuff.
Thank you for that informed and cogent response
/sarc
CC
Will you continue to use the N100? If there has been no official discussions have you had informal talks with your crew about the need to continue wearing PPE? Thanks!
” but I had understood that the tests had only demonstrated an apparent advantage in stopping mild symptoms over the control—”
Cases: Placebo - 162. Vaccine - 8
Severe: Placebo - 9. Vaccine - 1
“They did use the hek293 cell line in testing. Reference given in #30.”
Those are not stem cells.
Day 1
“gave written informed consent “
Guess why?
One of the things this has taught me is ever vigilance with PPE. not only for my protection but for the patient protection. In theory it should be moot as we should see in 2 - 3 month almost no one in the hospital for this disease if vaccination goes as planned. I will probably ditch the P-100 in time and favor N-95.
I think over the course of a year, thing will settle back to less aggressive isolation. A lot of this was fear. There was an article published about a month ago regarding circulation of the disease in December. We didn’t get really scared until March. There were not bodies in the street over those 3 months...I guess the thing speaks for itself.
Because informed consent is a part of every medical procedure and a hallmark of Western Medical Ethics?
Legal consequences.
That’s why.
“Guess why?”
Standard procedure. I guess you don’t get flu shots.
I completely disagree. We always discuss R/B/A and provide informed consent for all our patients for any treatment.
There is nothing nefarious about getting informed consent. In fact, not getting informed consent would be a problem.
Thank you so much for your post, and taking the time to answer questions from the peanut gallery. I really appreciated your description of the RNA mechanism, as I could find lots of scary headlines, but no plain English explanation.
My daughter is a surgeon at a large New England hospital, and had her vaccine yesterday morning, and I was worried, as she has had strong negative reactions to some vaccines. So far, she’s good. They did have to stay in a room under observation for about half an hour she said. Then she went about her day. She did say that she had Benadryl and Tylenol in her pocket. I did not ask if was to humor me, or hospital administered.
Thank you again for your thoughtfulness.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.