I haven’t had the Covid vaccine and I don’t know what to do now?

I am having my sixth covid jab tomorrow. This is because I have an autoimmune skin condition. DH had his fifth recently. We have both managed to avoid covid so far. My stepdaughter is a consultant in intensive care and both she her DH and her two children have been vaccinated.

even if the adverse events you have read about are related to the vaccine (they are all things that could have happened anyway), compare the numbers of them to the millions of people around the world who have had the vaccine without more than a mild reaction. Then think that 420 people are still dying daily in the UK of covid and over 1100 are sufficiently bad with covid to need admitting to hospital EVERYDAY in England alone. (government figures). The covid vaccines are produced in a different way to the flu ones, so you are unlikely to have a reaction, but talk to your GP, who will have your full medical record and can give you personal advice. As to scientific studies on the new vaccines, there are masses now available. For good summaries look at the work of Independent SAGE and its members. These are all experts in their field and are respected by others. They give regular updates on twitter,even though the government has stopped issuing reports and advice.
Long Covid is also a problem. Good article in guardian yesterday. www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/13/long-covid-patient-testimony
And
www.theguardian.com/society/2022/oct/12/long-covid-coronavirus-data-symptoms-causes-studies

M0nica

Boscuitmuncher It's been banned for young men in florida that tells you all you need to know

Well, yes it does, but not quite what you think. It just tells me a lot about the reasoning powers of the person, who thinks a fact like that is the clincher in an argument.

Ahh you mean the ex nurse john campbell who has never been open about his doctorate being a phd. He just churns out any data he can find

So he is not a medical docto?. Now that does explain a lot.

M0nica

So he is not a medical docto?. Now that does explain a lot.

He did a very interesting web chat the other day with a couple whose 2 year old daughter contracted hepatitis and has had a liver transplant. They explained that the biggest danger to their child is chicken pox and were querying why they vaccinate against chicken pox in America but not here. Dr John does a lot of good. No one has to believe everything he says and he always puts links up so people can read them for themselves.

Here I am again MayBee70

Nothing wrong with Dr Campbell's qualifications. He has a PhD in nursing education. He has never hidden that, but he doesn't exactly advertise it either.

He is a very good educator, but he knows diddly squat about medical statistics and draws conclusions from published and pre-published work that are not justified. He doesn't admit the limits of his own knowledge.

He's the Liz Truss of the Covid world.

I’ve found him very helpful and reassuring throughout the pandemic. He doesn’t say he’s right. He asks people to read the links and interpret them as they see fit. And he talks all the time about his experiences as a nurse and never pretends to be anything other than a nurse. I found the chat about chicken pox very interesting and thought provoking. I don’t always agree with what he says but I found him more informative throughout the pandemic that the government and it’s advisors.

To be fair volver many GPs do not understand medical statistics in my experience.

David Spiegelhalter is worth listening to in understanding risk and has podcasts on YouTube. One can be found where he discusses on Ben Yeoh Chats - Covid stats. Thinking about risk in life and Medicine. Covid by Numbers
for those interested nerds like me.

Pfizer have admitted yesterday that they knew the vaccine wouldn't prevent transmission of the virus - how many tens of thousands of social care workers lost their jobs because they 'had to protect their residents'? Lies, lies, lies - how many more are there? Follow the money ....

MadeInYorkshire

Pfizer have admitted yesterday that they knew the vaccine wouldn't prevent transmission of the virus - how many tens of thousands of social care workers lost their jobs because they 'had to protect their residents'? Lies, lies, lies - how many more are there? Follow the money ....

As a carer ????????????

I have always known that vaccination wouldn't prevent transmission of the virus, but that it lessened the effect of it, and presumably also the length of time that patients were ill with it, which would itself mean that they would pass it to fewer others.

I can't remember exactly where that information came from, but I presume that care home managers and staff had the same access to knowing it as I did.

I have fact checked this claim on AP News and it does not appear that Pfizer made this claim prior to the vaccine being released.

I think that we all thought initially that the vaccine would prevent or reduce transmission because I remember how disappointed I felt when I heard it didn’t do so. And I feared at the time that anti vacc’ers would gleefully use it to advise people not to have it. At least it makes our immune system recognise the virus. I spoke to a friend who works at a vaccination centre yesterday and she said we’ll be having the vaccine for the foreseeable future. I still don’t understand why some people don’t seem to catch it. My friend is older than me and is immune suppressed but has been working at vaccination centres throughout and has never caught it.

MayBee children in the UK can have a vaccine against chicken pox. All my grandson's have had it.

But it isn’t actually health policy for all children to have it unlike America. I also didn’t realise that children did die of chicken pox. For children like the little girl with the liver transplant to be protected the majority of children would need to be vaccinated and it would, I assume, reduce the risk of shingles when people get older.

MadeInYorkshire

Pfizer have admitted yesterday that they knew the vaccine wouldn't prevent transmission of the virus - how many tens of thousands of social care workers lost their jobs because they 'had to protect their residents'? Lies, lies, lies - how many more are there? Follow the money ....

No idea! How many tens of thousands of social care workers did lose their jobs?

Given the virulence and death rate associate with COVID before the vaccination. A vaccination that just reduced the severity of the disease was a huge step forward. Far fewer deaths, far fewer hospitalisations, and a reduction in the severity of any long term effects. And by definition a shortening of the time anyone with COVID is likely to be infectious and pass the disease on, so reducing transmission as well.

It would be ridiculous to refuse the vaccine because it only ameliorated the disease rather than stopping it entirely. You would be saying that you would rather face the high risk of severe illness, death and long term side effects that goes with not being vacccinated rather than receiving a vaccination that reduces the threat of death, severe illness and long term damage to your health.

I am sure that in time a vaccination will be developed that does protect all but a small minority from getting the disease (no vaccination is 100% effective). In the meantime let us be grateful for any vaccination that makes this disease less fatal and less severe and for the speed with which scientists developed a usable and useful vaccination.

Individuals being seemingly immune to epidemic diseases is not uncommon. No one in my immediate family has ever had flu; not my parents, my sisters or me, or my children. This despitemy sisters and I being at boarding school during the late 1950s Asian flu pandemic and when the school closed for two weeks returning to home on an army camp where my father was going into work everyday throughout.

Also there will be people who seem immune, but it eventually catches up with you. DH, DD, and I have all had COVID in the last month, caught when we were on holiday together.

All of us obeyed the mandatory mask wearing when it was imposed but all of us stopped wearing them when it was no longer required. DD travelled on public transport in London several times a week, went to the theatre regularly. We travelled less, but didi not wear masks. We did all this from March 2020 to August 2022, well over 2 years and never caught COVID, but it caught up with us in the end. DH and DD tested negative within three or four days. I had it longer and worse, but, for me, it followed hard on being ill for over a month with a bacterial infection, so my immune system had probably not full recovered from that.

be thankful for what we have rather than rejecting it because it was not perfect at the first attempt.

I do know that a disproportionately high number of care home staff lost their lives because they caught Covid.

growstuff mostly before vaccination was introduced and because so many refused to have vaccination when it became available. Some people have died despite vaccination but far, far fewer than among the unvaccinated.

Many health care workers are from the black and Afro-carribean community or of non-British origin and these communities were substantially less likely to be vaccinated than those of white or Asian origin. the reasons for this are not fully understood. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23927-x

i bet mr draper and ms garraway wish the covid vaccine had been available a year earlier.
there is now an upsurge in covid infections and hospital admissions again.
apparently this coincides with increased one star rating reviews of scented candles.

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/13/zero-scent-candles-covid

twitter.com/datadrivenmd/status/1578982975470858240

You are in a bit of a quandary.
The thing only you can decide.
I understand where you are coming from with side effect and allergic reactions, I also have allergic reactions to unknown things. side effects to the medication I am on.
My husband as had all his jabs and still went into hospital for 11 days ended up with blood clots on the lungs and a DVT in his leg. Caught Covid when we visited our daughter and family from our grandson who in turn went to a birthday party and the mums didn't test their children hence it was passed on.
Life is like that we don't know what is round the corner do we, we all takes risks everyday we go out crossing the road.
What can you do stay in, don't see anyone, don't go out, that's not life.
If your GP as said not to have the Flu jab take his advice, if he advices you to have the vaccine there's only you who can decide.

I'd just take my GP's advice. It's strange how people always find the 'reasons' to support their decisions. Life is risky, whatever we decide - oh, and failing to make a decision is still a choice - as you decide to do nothing. All the evidence shows that it's safer to be immunised, though - so why risk ignoring it?

I would only say that, prior to vaccination becoming available, four people that I knew personally died of Covid. Since vaccination everyone I know has either been very mildly ill or not caught it at all. And no one's had any side effects from the vaccine.

welbeck

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/13/zero-scent-candles-covid

twitter.com/datadrivenmd/status/1578982975470858240

Beware spurious correlations. For instance, the graph of the per capita consumption of mozzarella cheese correlates 95.8% (r = 0.958468) with that of civil engineering doctorates awarded.

More staggering correlations at www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations