It all depends on the mix and distribution of vaccinated people. They are probably less likely, especially in states with higher rates of immunization.
As for the OPs student, if you’re concerned about COVID and your son has a legitimate medical condition that precludes immunization, I’d seriously consider avoiding schools that will have high populations of unvaccinated students. He’s chance of getting it will be too high. It might just pass, but it very well might not.
The sweet spot is a school that mandates COVID immunization, but allows legitimate exemptions for medical reasons. That way those students who are not immunized will be protected by the heard, just as infants too young to be immunized for measles don’t get it often, because there are so few that can give it to them.
Good points. Plus I would add the other cohort many seem to be forgetting as part of the “herd immunity count” are those with PRIOR infection who may/may not have chosen to be vaccinated at this time due to the presence of antibodies. I’ve never seen this number broken out when percentages are listed. Maybe there IS actually more protection in the states (thus schools) simply due to undeniably more infection, than we know. For example when our 2 D’s came home for Christmas break they were nearly the ONLY ones in their circle of friends who has NOT contracted Covid yet - it had infected a huge portion of those on campus from Virginia to Arizona and everything in between.
ITP is a relative contraindication because platelet counts can drop post immunization in otherwise stable patients. That said, it’s rare, and as @parentologist said, the risk of the disease far outweigh the risk of immunization complications. I don’t think I’d want a disease known to cause vasculitis if I already had a bleeding disorder. The American Society of Hematology recommends COVID immunization for patients with thrombocytopenia as does the National Hemophilia Foundation.
Ok thanks, I might be misundertanding, but I thought that the cases linked to the mRNA vaccines were thrombocytopenia and thrombosis due to platelet factor 4 (PF4) antibodies. I believe this is completely different vs ITP. I agree that the risk for these rare bleeding disorders are very low. Patients with PF4 activation abnormalities should be contraindicated for mRNA vaccines. But problem is that PF4 is not routinely tested for. Sorry if I am not understanding correctly.
Two different things. Reduced platelet count has been linked to multiple vaccines, rarely, even prior to covid. I’m not a hematologist, so now you have the sum total breadth of my knowledge.
Very rarely, people with a history of ITP have had covid vaccine (I know for sure Moderna, possibly the others) trigger a severe recurrence of ITP. As I said, it’s extremely rare. And who’s to know if infection with Covid would have caused an even more severe recurrence of ITP. But it is a known association.
As you know, it’s hard not to make associative connections when the timing is right.
There have been cases of transverse myelitis after the AstraZeneca vaccine, but they are rare. TM is a known complication of COVID though at a much higher rate. It’s not a matter of being risk free. Getting into the shower or driving a car is not risk free. It’s a matter of relative risk of the treatment (or in this case prevention) versus the disease.
I’ve known people who had TM who were vaccinated. Ditto GBS.
The school where I used to work has yet to make a decision as to whether or not vaccines will be required. They very well may require it, so its omission on lists of schools requiring vaccines means nothing … and I imagine it’s not the only school in that situation. It’s a small school & it’s taking upper management forever to make a decision, so I suppose it’s even worse at bigger schools.
You’re preaching to the choir here. I think that covid vaccination should be required for everyone who sets foot on campus, no exceptions whatsoever, because the entire campus being immunized helps to keep everyone safe, and because any condition that someone might claim would make immunization too risky for them, would make Covid infection far more risky for them.
This doesn’t change the fact that very, very rarely Covid vaccination is associated with serious side effects, at a vastly lower rate than the serious effects of Covid infection.
Wouldn’t severe allergy to polyethylene glycol and polysorbate 80 prevent someone from getting any of the COVID-19 vaccines available in the US, while not otherwise increasing COVID-19 risk for them? Granted, this is probably a rare (but probably non-zero) case. Of course, such people, if they want to avoid COVID-19, would want to be in a place with a high vaccination rate, and if another COVID-19 vaccine becomes available without anything that they are allergic to, they would want to get it.
Yes, most of the other reported or speculated non-allergy effects appear to be ones where the real COVID-19 virus poses a substantially greater risk of them than any possible vaccine-associated risk of them.
