Also, more free time to figure out where to go to get vaccinated. And more time to leave work w/o sacrificing a portion of your hourly wage. Perhaps you don’t work the late shift. Or perhaps you have more discretionary income to pay your caregiver that extra hour to watch your kids or get dinner started in case you are delayed on the way home by that vax appointment. No need to pick up those kids at the day care which closes at 6 pm. And you can drive everywhere rather than rely on bus or train schedules. In other words: vaccination access, like the pandemic itself, is increasing the distance between the haves and the have-nots.
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I guess you just don’t have the level of exhaustion and frustration that I do.
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I really don’t think any of that is an excuse. Every pharmacy is dispensing the vaccine. Mobil clinics were set up in poorer areas. Most of the excuses in interviews I’ve read in newspaper articles never mention difficulty in finding the vaccine.
I bet this is a myth. It certainly wasn’t true in my family. 3/4 of my grandparents never finished high school (grandmother only made it to 4th grade) and they never blindly trusted their doctors. Often they knew better and acted on their “knowledge” vs what the doctor said. For small stuff they wouldn’t even go.
One of the best lines I remember hearing was when my grandfather was leaving a doctor appointment getting into the car with my grandmother and complaining about pain in his leg. “Why didn’t you ask the doctor about it?” grandma asked. Grandpa replied, “Because it’s none of his d–n business!”
If any of them were still alive they’d be vaxed though. I’m 99.9% sure. They’re the ones who lived through all of the childhood diseases seeing it affect others and made sure my mom and dad were vaxed with whatever was out there as soon as they could. The two who survived to see their great-grandchildren were happy my kids could be vaxed as babies and told me plenty of stories of how those diseases affected others.
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Just read about a rash of hospitalizations of people who are treating COVID with a drug made for livestock available at feed stores. Gen. Flynn and his brother are promoting this, even to the point of giving dosage schedules. How can you trust this more than a vaccine that hundreds of millions have received???
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Isn’t a significant portion of livestock led to slaughter?
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Just worked 5 12h shifts.
Fri: 1 patient intubated at 3a, I came into him coding (cpr, drugs, etc) at 710am until he died at 1045a.
I truly don’t even remember my other pt.
Sat: 2 patients. 1 43yof on 100% 02 on a CPAP machine, alternating with a 40L 100% high flow. Not sure her status now, but she was still fighting for every breath at the end of the shift.
The other man in his 60s made the choice to not be intubated. He was MISERABLE. Kept ripping off his mask… I said, “you’ll die if you keep doing that.” He looked at me wide eyed and gave me 2 thumbs up. “Do you want to die?” Two big thumbs up nodding his head… not enough breath to vocalize. His wife and daughter came in for 10 mins, then waited outside looking through the door as I gave him enough morphine and Ativan to make him comfortable. Once he was out, took off his mask and he died within 30 mins.
Sun: 66 yof, intubated 36h prior. Seemed relatively stable when I got her. Intubated, sedated, paralyzed, prone laying on her belly. Put her on her back after 16h. Seemed “stable.” Put a dialysis catheter in bc her kidneys were no longer filtering. Still ok. The rest of the unit was EXPLODING, so I helped. Posted that picture of the team in my last post.
By midday my ladys BP began to drop. No prob. Put on one BP med infusing. Then her o2 dropped a little, no room to move on the vent, she was max vent support. BP drops a little more. Max out first BP med. Add a second in the process. Then a 3rd bc dialysis RN shows up and MAYBE this will help, but we know her BP takes another drop when start dialysis… Finish dialysis on 3 vasopressors maxed. O2 sat is tanking. Tell the family. This is resp failure from COVID pneumonia causing the secondary heart complications. We threw antibiotics at her, nope. When I left, COVID had torn threw her. Her o2 sat was 55%. She died at 1230 that night.
Mon: I have 1 pt. He’s actually stable and still ok. My coworker gets a pt from the ER who had just been intubated. He I think is 50s, healthy looking guy. Within 30 mins of his arrival, he mirrors the pt I had on Sun. We are doing CPR on him. As I’m breaking his ribs (real) with CPR to pump his heart, I see another newly intubated 40yof being wheeled in. I continue on my task, others pushing drugs, also pt was on max vent support, RR 30 20/20, 100% NOWHERE TO GO. We intermittently code this man for 2-3 hours. Finally settling on 4 max dose vasopressors and max ventilation. He was still alive today, but I will be shocked if he lives through this.
In the afternoon, the newly brought in 40yof codes again… and again… and again… we did easily 6 rounds of CPR. Max BP support, 02 sats in the 50-70s. She was intubated at 11am. She died at 630p.
Tues: We had one pt die. He wasn’t mine, but we simply could not get his o2 levels above 50-60% and his heart finally gave. My dude from Monday not worse not better. We reparalyzed him and put him on his belly again. Time will tell how he does.
This is all in one of 3 10 bed ICUs. No idea what they experienced on the other floors.
These pts are not vax.
We do not have treatment.
We have a vaccine.
Not one of them thought it would happen to them. They took their chances. They banked on treatment we don’t have. And why?
You make your personal choice, but be willing to live (or not) with the consequences not just on you but your family, the breaking healthcare system, and the community as a whole.
As you decide to not take the vax, you may be fine, or you may not. If you aren’t going to listen to medical doctors who advise to get the vax, then why come to the hospital and then listen to the same people you chose not to in the first place? Do you know what we are going to give you better than you know the vaccine?
And it’s not that we don’t care… we have worked harder these last days than I EVER have… it’s just hard to be emotionally invested when the outcome is clear, and soooo quick, and was completely avoidable.
Of course this is just my little snapshot in my little hospital in the little big city Sacramento.
Copied from a friend’s FB post. I wish I could convey what I read in private forums, but I will leave that stuff there. Since this was a public post, can share.
BTW, would it surprise you that the guy was attacked, accused of being a liar, that there couldn’t be that many deaths, being a part of a conspiracy, asking if he voted for Trump or Biden, etc., etc., etc.?
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Well, money works. Houston now pays anyone $100 for getting a shot. Daily imunizations tripled.
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KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor: Parents and the Pandemic | KFF figure 8 suggests that perceived (even if not always actual) access barriers are seen by Hispanic and Black parents more than White parents in terms of getting their age 12-17 kids vaccinated. However, it does look like these reasons are overall less cited than the more hardline opposition reasons, suggesting that the remaining parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids have a large percentage of hardline opponents.
| Parental concern | All | Black | Hispanic | White |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time off work | 32% | 34% | 49% | 24% |
| Vaccine not at trusted place | 24% | 28% | 49% | 16% |
| Out-of-pocket cost | 18% | 30% | 34% | 11% |
| Difficulty traveling to vaccine place | 17% | 24% | 40% | 8% |
Race / ethnicity is not the same as SES, but has significant correlation.
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Colorado gives a $100 Walmart gift card, but you have to go to the Vaccine bus(es) which they move around to different neighborhoods every day, usually in a low income area and a Walmart, Dollar Store type parking lot.
But it does work. The kid in front of my daughter in line was calling his friends “Hey, come down here, they give you $100!” He was 17. They’ve had the buses at the ‘back to school’ events where they give the kids school physicals, backpacks with supplies, etc, and now any kid over 12 can get the vaccine and the $100.
Go for it.
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It’s probably Ivermectin. We use it for our ponies to worm them. When I buy it online now there’s a red warning sign to not use it for Covid or on humans in general. Looks like this, but in red and it or something similar is on all Ivermectin products:
Warning from the Manufacturer
COVID-19 ALERT CONCERNING DURVET IVERMECTIN PRODUCTS: WARNING! A number of Durvet products including Duramectin Equine Dewormer, Ivermectin Equine Dewormer, Ivermectin Sheep Drench, Ivermectin Pour On, Ivermectin Injection and Ivermectin Plus Injection contain the anti-parasite ingredient Ivermectin. Despite media reports that Ivermectin could potentially be used to treat people with COVID-19, these products are not safe or approved for human use, which could cause severe personal injury or death.
Sounds far more suitable and safe than a vaccine, no? (sarcasm in case anyone isn’t reading this last statement that way)
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YES–that’s the drug. Thanks–couldn’t remember!
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The shots are being given at the pharmacies in the grocery stores. Are those not getting vaccinated not going grocery shopping either? There also is no cost and this has been broadcast over and over. I don’t think anyone really has a valid excuse for not getting the vaccine. It’s been available for every adult for months and months.
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Thanks for sharing this story. Seriously smdh. I don’t feel any sympathy for the antivaxxers at all; it was their choice to gamble and they got shot playing Russian roulette. Obviously those who medically can’t be vaccinated are a different category. I’m worried for the healthcare workers because I feel we haven’t even seen the worst of Delta yet. The incidence curve is vertical where the hotspots are, and there’s still millions of unvaccinated bodies for Delta to invade.
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Yikes! Thanks for all you and all in our front line are doing to help keep people alive. Sorry people aren’t getting vaccinated to make your job less horrific.
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Here’s “today’s” no-vax to death newsmaker, though there may be more:
At 63 years of age (I googled that since it wasn’t in the report), they should have known they weren’t in the “very low risk” categories.
One has to wonder how many it takes before those trusting in God realize God is the one who gave people wisdom and abilities to give us the vaccines. Or… if they are trusting in their personal health, then how long before they realize they can help their immune system against a disease that has taken other “healthy” people too and we don’t know exactly who or what the difference is between asymptomatic and death.
May each death open up the eyes for people to see reality.
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Its not only time off of work to go to CVS/Walgreens (and miss a few hours of pay), but planning for 2+ days extra of having illness-like symptoms and having to take those days off without pay too.
Yes, the excuses are “paper thin” as one writer has said, but they are excuses nonetheless, and if the Government wants a higher vax rate, they need to eliminate the barriers, both real and imagined.
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It is well known that big supermarkets (the kind likely to have pharmacies in them) are less common and accessible in poorer areas (both urban and rural). This has mostly been reported in the context of lower availability of healthy food and the health problems that such lower availability of healthy food contributes to.
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I thought the same thing with the woman who (used to) do my hair for the last 10 years. Her best friend died due to Covid in December. I thought for sure this would impact her thoughts on the vaccine. Nope! That’s why I said “used to” do my hair. I made the decision to no longer go to her anymore after she told me in May she was not getting vaccinated.
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Thank you but I’m not on the front lines directly, so that shouldn’t be directed to me but my colleagues. When I was in medical school, I did a rotation on the neurology service for a month. There was a man that we, as a team, knew well because he had a stroke and though he had been informed over and over about the importance of taking his medication to lower his blood pressure, he never took his meds, and he would keep showing up in the emergency room in the middle of the night with high blood pressure. We would get woken up from the on-call room throughout the night, and whenever it was this guy, I internally started to get angry with him because I thought, if he had only taken his medication like we stressed each time we saw him, I would be asleep right now. I quickly realized that if I am blaming the patient (even though they were informed and educated on the subject), I was in the wrong field. I often put myself in the shoes of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, etc., and read stories like the one above, and hear rumblings of anger, thoughts of why people were refusing to listen, trying to get people to listen, only to be attacked, and day after day do the same work as that man posted, hours of chest compressions each day, the extreme viral load they encounter and the fear that they might pass it on to their colleagues in the hospital or bring it home to their families, having to decontaminate and suit up for the next, all the while still needing to treat “regular” patients, gun shot wounds, accidents, heart attacks, etc., etc., day after day, again and again. If I felt a slight degree of resentment toward that one man, what must they be feeling to the thousands of unvaccinated who refuse to listen yet show up needing care? I know “the oath”, doctors and nurses are supposed to feel compassion, etc., etc. Can you image what they must be feeling right now? And here comes another unvaccinated person…There are people who are quitting, or retiring early. And let’s not forget how a colleague can get sick at any moment and not be able to come to work, and there’s no staff to replace them, running out of supplies, running out of beds.
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