I think that you acted entirely reasonably, especially since you also took all the right precautions like masking and avoiding people who were not vaccinated. Just make sure to keep monitoring yourself after your vaccine.
I would also, in your case, inquire with your doctor as to whether one dose will suffice, since you’ve already had COVID twice.
Just as an aside though - your chances of getting COVID again may be higher because it seems that the Delta variant manages to circumvent naturally acquired immunity in many cases.
I don’t know what country the poster was from, but if vaccine was in short supply it is likely boys got the vaccine instead of girls because mumps can affect the testes, leading to sterility or impaired fertility in males. Similarly, if there was short supply of rubella vaccine, it would make sense to give this to girls over boys, since getting rubella during pregnancy can lead to serious birth defects in the offspring.
That was Japan in the 90s and early 2000s so I don’t know if it has changed since then. And this was just my experience and based on how pediatricians advised me and what mom friends told me. I wasn’t an expert on their public health policy.
Measles, mumps, and rubella were all separate shots.
The mumps shot was given to boys at puberty because it was considered a mild disease unless it went to the testicles and caused infertility.
The rubella shot was given to girls at puberty because of the dangerous effects on a developing baby.
Measles was available but in my experience not strongly advised. When I heard about cases in town when my oldest was young but old enough to get the vaccine, I had to call around and visit a couple of pediatric clinics to be able to find a doctor who would give her the vaccine. It was summer and the doctors were concerned the side effects would be unpleasant.
It was an interesting way of doing things that depended a lot on the expectation that the vaccines would work as they should on each individual. It didn’t rely on vaccinating everyone in the community to protect others who might not mount a good immune response.
I have met people over the years who won’t get the MMR for their kids, but I have because of my experiences with the diseases.
A neighbor’s son got measles as a toddler and he had to be hospitalized. The infection went to his eyes and there was a fear that it would affect his vision. Thankfully, it worked out well. The dad was a doctor so I think the child would have been vaccinated if it had been clearly advised at the time.
Meanwhile, my daughter infected a European family friend who had never had mumps and had never been vaccinated. I think when he was a child, they may not have been vaccinating for the MMR diseases his country; my H never got them either but he got the diseases. We went out to eat together and we all tasted her drink, and then a day or two later she had a mild fever for an afternoon. She had hardly any swelling to indicate it was anything more than a mild virus but her preschool teacher warned me kids in the class had mumps. The hardest thing for us was quarantining for nine or ten days when she felt fine and wanted to go out. But our friend became severely ill and was fortunate to come out the other side with his fertility preserved.
Yes, this idea of undergoing a medical procedure that you might not need in order to benefit someone else is kind of unprecedented in my lifetime. They didn’t vaccinate parents when the polio vaccine first became available and that made perfect sense at the time. The childhood vaccination regimen prevents some pretty terrible diseases. Will Covid be considered similarly “terrible” in 10-20 years to the extent that future us will just shake our heads that anyone was ever against vaccination? Based on what we know now about Covid (which is hella more than this time last year), I doubt 10-20 years will move the needle in any meaningful way from a medical perspective. Perhaps it will from a financial perspective, however.
Hardly. School enrollment has long had required vaccinations (for things like MMR and such) in order to have herd immunity in the schools. Many schools and employers for those going into health care and emergency services also require the students and employees to have vaccinations or serological proof of immunity (for things like MMR and such), presumably to protect both the students and employees and the members of the general public that they are likely to have close unplanned contact with.
They probably assumed that parents at the time had been previously infected by then-endemic diseases.
Disease
% death
% long term effects
% asymptomatic
Polio
~0.2%
~0.8%
~70%
Measles
~0.01-0.3%
*
?
Mumps
~0.02-0.04%
~4%, 10-40% males after puberty
?
Rubella
~0%
~0% (non-pregnant), high (during pregnancy)
“often”
COVID-19
~0.5-1%
~20-30%
~50%
*Measles reduces acquired immunity against other diseases, although the effect is variable from one person to another.
School enrollment requires vaccinations for contagious diseases that are pretty horrible if a child (ETA: or young person) catches them. Covid is distinct here, especially for that age group. Not attempting to debate the issue - just clarifying what I see as a key difference in the minds of many. There is a reason why younger ages are the reference point for the CDC’s own risk assessment of hospitalization and death. I can’t think of a vaccine in recent history where the young and healthy were required to vaccinate specifically because the infection they might catch would overwhelmingly be more likely to harm not them but someone else of a certain age or underlying health condition. Again, it’s unprecedented - but maybe I have a logic mistake or two in there somewhere?
I think(?) our pediatric clinic (at the very least) requires vaccination of medical personnel and other employees even against the flu but most here wouldn’t have an issue with that. The reason I’m not sure whether it’s “required” vs 100% voluntary is that whenever I’ve asked both reception and nurses in the past (before Covid), the response has always been strongly pro-vax (instead of directly answering the question). So . . . hard to tell!
I agree that parents were not considered a high risk group for symptomatic polio for whatever reason. It was - and is - most prudent - medically and financially - to focus on the most vulnerable age group for any public health decision such as mass vaccination.
Not sure it’s relevant to compare “symptoms” among all these diseases since each presents differently; for instance, the large majority of those we know who contracted symptomatic Covid were never close to being hospitalized. Hospitalizations would probably be a better metric, though for the other comparison diseases those are historical figures.
Yes, you are forgetting schools and employers for health care and emergency services workers. Many of them are young and healthy, but are required to be vaccinated (for various contagious diseases like MMR and others) for both their own protection and the protection of the medically vulnerable whom they may come in contact with in the course of the jobs.
Probably assumed immunity due to polio previously being endemic. Note that such an assumption is still made with (for example) assumed immunity to measles if one was born before 1957.
This was a friend’s post I read today, about a young man in his 20s:
“To all my Prayer Warriors out there, I am asking for fervent, on your face prayers for my younger brother. His covid symptoms of last week seemed to be lessening, but today his oxygen saturation levels fell to almost deadly levels, and after going by ambulance to the hospital, he is on a ventilator in icu. It’s scary, but we are confident the Great Physician will guide and heal this very good man! It’s not like we don’t all need him!!!”
Not sure why people keep insisting this disease does not warrant getting vaccinated. It just boggles my mind.
Thank you @MACmiracle. Although you and I have reached very different conclusions about the morality issue, I can appreciate the thought you have given this. I have family who has decided to believe all kinds of crazy conspiracy theories about the contents of the vaccine with regard to recent abortions, so I am glad to know there are some who based their decision on accurate information.
I just heard a report on the radio, a relatively neutral non-political opinion station, that 100% of the deaths from Covid in June were non-vaccinated people. I was driving and did not notice the citation if it was mentioned before that factoid. Has any one seen any info like that? Y’all do some effective research
I did find this:
If this turns out to be accurate and ongoing, would that change anyone’s mind who is reluctant?
For schools, I actually agree with my state’s law that vaccines must not be forced on families and that if they have a good reason for not vaccinating that this will be respected (they have to jump through some hoops to validate their position). We have a high vax rate here and there is trust in the law and in the people to use their best judgement. It works well. But in looking at the recommended vaccinations - DTaP, Polio, MMR, Chickenpox - all help prevent diseases that would have bad outcomes for children or young people (even Rubella which can be lethal or extremely harmful to an unborn baby can have serious complications for the mother). Same with Meningitis among the college crowd living in congregant settings. One can easily make the case that it’s best to get those vaccines at some point, and that age matters precisely BECAUSE one is young and healthy (ie before they get the disease). Covid is distinct, as even those young people who have already contracted the virus are either pressured or outright required to get vaccinated and because there is a significant disparity by age and underlying health. In other words, the “standard” vaccines protect the (now) young and healthy. The Covid vaccine given to the young and healthy protects the already elderly and already sick.
For medical workers, there are standards in that industry - regulatory, reporting, cleaning, etc. - that are above and beyond what others have to deal with on a day to day basis. Some might be legally mandated; others are in-house. I’m not in the medical profession but IMO it would be an odd thing to choose that career and be against some of those protocols - particularly the ones that are central to disease prevention. If a healthcare provider decides to practice what it preaches, I can’t see how that’s a bad thing. It might cause some employees to leave as a matter of conscience, but that doesn’t make it the wrong decision. IMO, this is a very different situation from a university deciding that all students must be vaccinated for Covid so that the faculty are willing to return to hold class in person.
not from the so called invincible 18-25 year old . Unless they have a close contact in the friend group who gets very sick or dies, many think that it doesnt affect them, and dont think about passing it to someone who will die. Yes, this is selfish thinking, but unfortunately how many in that age group do think.
You have heard and have found correct information. And it’s been posted earlier. The number of hospitalizations and/or deaths from Covid among the vaccinated are miniscule.
And it protects plenty of immune compromised young people. And it might have protected the nearly 3000 young people who have died of covid. We should only take vaccines if they protect young people? Wow. I am astounded with that whole post.
I believe you might have misunderstood my point. The benefits of the vaccine are undeniable, and it’s tragic that 3,000 young people lost their lives (I’m assuming you are referring to the 0-29 yo age group). Risk of death specifically from Covid is quite small in that age range (I calculate .002% of the 0-29 population, 2% of all deaths in that range and about .5% of all Covid deaths) but it’s not 0. The vaccine hasn’t been approved yet for some in that age group (the <12’s); around here I do see some of them continuing to wear masks.
In the past, vaccines were taken to protect the person being vaccinated; the added benefit, of course, was that by not getting infected the vaccinated person was also not going to pass it on to others. It makes sense to administer many vaccines when young - well before the chance of catching a disease can occur. That’s why vaccines for many of the “standard diseases” associated with congregate settings such as k-12 school are administered. That doesn’t mean we only vaccinate the young and healthy or take vaccines only to protect young people - otherwise very few would be getting the flu shot every year! Also, as pointed out, the polio vaccine was administered to the highest risk group - the children and young people themselves. In general, those at most risk of illness or death from an infectious disease have been the most encouraged to take a vaccine.
The strong push to vaccinate young people w/o co-morbidities against Covid is different. This particular sub-population doesn’t have adverse outcomes from Covid (or hasn’t to date). So vaccinating them is kind of a first. We know that the thinking is about vaccinating for others and that has been the primary reason for the strong encouragement. That’s also a first. Surely if Covid is around another 10+ years this line of thought might be moot and we will breathe a sigh of relief that we pushed vaccination for everyone to be on the “safe side.” On the other hand, this is one expensive endeavor and the cost burden might be overwhelming - even crushing - for the very young people who don’t necessarily need vaccination now. It’s possible that other large-scale vaccination programs had similar cost burdens and similar efforts to vaccinate the non-vulnerable on behalf of others. Can anyone think of one?
At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, 91% of ICU patients are on ventilators and many are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, Chief Administrative Officer Erik Frederick told CNN on Saturday. That is especially concerning, he said, because at the peak last year there were only 40 to 50% of ICU patients on ventilators.
