Vaccine reluctance & General COVID Discussion

I can appreciate that but that wasn’t the info the Moderna and Pfizer CEOs shared about how quickly “updated” vaccines could be produced. It is what it is.

These companies still have to run clinical trials with any variant specific product.

Moderna does have an Omicron specific product in their pipeline, but Omicron could fade away within the next month. That, along with the fact that data show boosters of the current products are highly protective impact the future of these developmental products…these are the types of issues these companies must weigh when spending significant time and money on getting trials up and running.

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A twist in the Djokovic v Australia saga:

“Mr Djokovic had received, on 30 December 2021, a letter from the Chief Medical Officer of Tennis Australia recording that he had been provided with a ‘Medical exemption from COVID vaccination’ on the grounds that he had recently recovered from COVID,” the document said.

After being questioned by the Australian Border Force, the submission states that Djokovic’s exemption was determined to be invalid under Australia’s BioSecurity Act because his “previous infection with COVID-19 is not considered a medical contraindication for Covid-19 vaccination in Australia.”

However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters Thursday that Tennis Australia was advised in a letter as far back as November 2021 that unvaccinated players with a recent Covid-19 infection would not be allowed to enter the country.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/08/tennis/novak-djokovic-covid-australia-intl-spt/index.html

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Indeed, weren’t the prototype mRNA vaccines made very soon after the virus was sequenced? Of course, it took three phases of trials to get to EUA…

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@Mwfan1921 the most shocking thing to me is that the day after the positive COVId test he went to 2 events unmasked. One a stamp issued in his likeness. The other a tennis award presentation where he gave out awards and took photos with kids - all unmasked. So is the positive test faked or did he knowingly exposed others after a positive COVId test?

FYI I have been a Djokovic fan since 2011 (I think) when I was lucky enough to be in an outside Wimbledon court holding a seat for myself and my brother waiting for a Petra Kvitova match and Djokovic and his team arrived for a practice session. He was so engaging and funny with the crowd that I became an instant fan (he and Petra both went on to take Wimbledon that year). All this is tarnishing him in my eyes.

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Can you imagine turning down a rabies vaccine because you have a fear of vaccines???

Once symptoms start, rabies is nearly always fatal.

In one case, a man in Illinois who had a bat roost in his home awoke in August to find a bat on his neck, according to a statement from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The bat was captured and tested positive for rabies, but the man declined to take a vaccine because of a longstanding fear of vaccines.

No. It’s illogical. That’s what I can’t wrap my mind around, that there are so many illogical people in our country. Call me judgmental.

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Not trying to hijack the thread here but wanted to check in with some info. Note: This is a rare situation, although my hematologist will be reporting to VAERS so that the CDC can continue to gather data.

Yesterday I was admitted to the ER and subsequently transferred to the “main” hospital for plasma and hematology in order to receive a platelet transfusion, IVIG and corticosteroids. The working diagnosis right now is “Immune Mediated TCP d/t Vaccine.” Non-medical description: my antibodies were destroying my platelets do to “something” and my recent Pfizer booster is indicated. Two lab tests clocked them at well under 10,000 (normal is 150-450k). They won’t really know for sure whether it’s due to booster or a possible auto-immune issue, but the booster is being treated as a prospective trigger due to timing, my specific symptoms, and the fact that nothing remotely in my or my family’s medical history suggests something else. Not to attempt TMI, but other, even more serious disease (leukemia, etc) has been ruled out in case anyone was wondering.

Background: I received the Pfizer booster in mid December and started bruising all over my body within a week after that. Started slow then got more frequent. As I work out regularly, including with weights, and sometimes bruise from that inadvertently, I didn’t think too much of it at first, till I noticed even more bruising from minimal brushes with things or even from no memory of touching anything. Then, when more symptoms on my skin manifested earlier this week, it was time to seek answers. I’m very grateful that my preventative appt. was scheduled for only a day or two later and, after doing a bit of research as well as a thorough exam, my provider immediately ordered the kitchen-sink for lab work. By last night, only a few hours after admission, I had the information to be reassured about thrombosis (blood clots) or acute infection (hepatitis, including auto-immune variety).

Why share such personal health information? After all, this is probably more rare than that earlier-discussed Rabies incident (sorry, Creekland :rofl:) Well -

  1. Because bleeding disorders from mRNA are probably not on many people’s radar and IMO this might be one more thing to watch out for. It shouldn’t keep others from getting their vaccines. All of my family is vaxed and boosted. My oldest, even after knowing that her mom was headed to the hospital on a possible vaccine-related issue, said “pick your poison” and went to her booster appointment yesterday. My care team has given me lots of details on lung damage from Covid. The “new” standard for oxy readings is 88 which, as most know, is a pretty low number - or at least was pretty low prior to Covid! They assure me that it’s still better to vaccinate and just keep a closer eye out for symptoms. My takeaway :thinking: is that had I “freaked out” about the bruising a couple weeks ago and gotten seen for it, I may not have needed that platelet transfusion.

  2. This phenomenon might show up later as a CDC/FDA notice for the mRNA vaccines. We know all about blood clotting from J&J/AZ but how much is generally known about bleeding complications (lack of platelets in my case, blood clots in others . . . ) from mRNA? It’s still under investigation is my impression from the literature - UCBAlum and others might know more. My unusual situation - and I fully disclose that of all the “complications” I’ve learned about anecdotally and otherwise, I know no one else in my situation, nor had I even heard of it till I started doing heavy research a couple days ago - may turn out to be a data point in a more comprehensive review of a more commonly discovered outcome than originally thought. Right now the data are unclear as to whether this is higher-than-baseline. But that could change over time.

  3. My take (from personal experience) regarding the general vaccine “politics”: I have had no sense of being brushed aside w/r/t the vaccine being a possible cause. Everyone - from my primary provider to the ER team to my hospital care team - has noted this possibility and taken it seriously. My hematologist ordered treatment consistent with a vaccine-related phenomenon. So, based on my personal and in-depth experience, the medical community is more interested in truth than politics. Just one perspective here but it does happen to conform to my prior observations. I just feel I have hella more evidence now!

Finally, I will obviously provide an update if we can (not likely) pinpoint an auto-immune-related issue or (even less likely) something more serious. Doesn’t change my advice for all to “be on the lookout” as my one data point doesn’t really change the overall direction of evidence. But if it’s something else I would want everyone here to know that, since I’ve brought up a potential complication concerning the vaccine.

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D2 had ITP when she was 6 months old, following a viral infection. It was very scary to me, but the good news is it cleared up quickly and has never happened again.

Get well soon!

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15 cases in over 18 million doses. You should play the lottery!
In all seriousness, I hope you fully recover and am so sorry you are having to go through this. (I assume you mean ITP btw)

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The EUA means any revisions must go thru a separate approval, which includes testing volunteers and data collection.

I’m very sorry for your illness and wish you speedy recovery.

This has been my experience as well.

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My hematologist does not refer to it as ITP anymore. In part that may be due to some confusion of the abbreviation in the literature and media reporting, one of which starts with the term “idiopathic.” This is suspected vaccine induced ITP, if that’s helpful. It appears that the underlying description is being tweaked over time by the experts.

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You’re right, if it’s vaccine-induced, it’s not idiopathic.
I hope you fully recover soon. Such an awful disease to add on the stress of everything else. Hopefully you have some support at home.

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I think “idiopathic” has been tweaked to “immune” and the old terminology which included “purpura” now includes the last three syllables of “cytopenia.” I’ve seen an evolution from Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura to Immune-Mediated ThromboCytoPenia. I think. And of course VITT gets thrown in there too. Despite the word/letter salad, I think these all appear to be related disorders, whether you bleed, develop a blood clot - or even eventually experience both. Not a medical expert, however, this is just my observation from the literature.

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You’re right.

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Thanks for sharing! Wow, that’s scary.

We do have one friend whose adult daughter has been experiencing some pretty serious, mysterious symptoms since getting vaccinated. This family is not anti-vax so I know they’re not exaggerating. The young woman has even been down to Boston for more testing.

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As with anything…if you are experiencing unusual symptoms…absolutely seek medical advice, tests, whatever. You just never know how something can affect even one person.

I hope you are on the mend…and nothing more involved happens.

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My escape might be Mon or Tues, assuming they don’t notice anything weird (and they aren’t expecting that at all). It’s really about how quickly my platelet inventory will increase. Right now looks pretty good due, I’m told, more to the immunoglobulin and steroids than the platelet transfusion. The latter wasn’t a huge amount, and if nothing else was working then my antibodies would just have eaten them up as well :scream:

Learned an interesting bit of trivia: the immunoglobulin is actually in short supply nationwide as it’s used in connection with (or in production of?) the monoclonal antibody therapy. I’m personally not worried - I actually have felt great the entire time! I’m sure that I get prioritized appropriately given platelet count. This morning I was at 50k which is much better - so most likely on the mend!

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What seems to lost in all the jumble is an ongoing interest in finding out WHERE this thing came from…And yes, I DO think it matters.

If we want to at least have a better chance of dealing with the next one…wouldn’t it be extremely helpful to know where to look?

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