Jody writes:
Hi Daniel,
My cousin, a healthcare worker in Michigan who is pregnant and in her third trimester, wrote me yesterday to ask for my thoughts on whether or not to get a third shot of Pfizer. Her OB is all for it, but she was curious to know whether or not I had encountered any discussion or studies on the matter. I understand that pregnancy is an immunocompromised state and that pregnant women are at increased risk of developing severe symptoms, but I also remember learning that fever during a pregnancy can be harmful to the developing baby, and she could experience fever as a side effect after receiving the shot. Can you shed any light on this issue for us?
Thank you!
Jody
Marci writes:
Question about masks: have you seen the “singing masks”. And what do think of them for singing in a choir? ( all vaccinated, standing at least 6 feet apart, in a very large open room-a church-outdoors for part of rehearsal)
Would face shields add anything?
Thanks. I am a pediatrician in an office practice and find your updates very helpful, for answering patients’ questions about masks, vaccines etc. I am continuing the often uphill battle for vaccinations in kids and parents; some are persuaded but many are just a hard stop. And I am in Maryland, which is doing better than most!
Mike writes:
Thank you Vincent and Daniel for your excellent podcast TWIV #800, which
I came to after watching you on Lex Fridman.
I’m trying to convince my 23yr old daughter to get vaccinated, her hesitancy seems to be largely driven by a complete mistrust in the media. She doesn’t follow any major network news sources, and is very suspicious of any news items and all politics, and would rather bury her head in the sand. I suspect this is common in her age group. I’m not sure I can change her mind at this point.
However, I am trying point to some credible large scale data showing the efficacy of the vaccine. (which I define as reduction in hospitalization, long covid and death). Is this data available yet?
The vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazenica) were all presented as having very impressive ~90% efficacy numbers. I would like to see whether these results were born out by the data. I tried to read the paper you mentioned in your podcast: “Risk factors and disease profile of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection in UK users of the COVID Symptom Study app: a prospective, community-based, nested, case-control study”
This reported that 0.5% of the 1 dose vaccinated subsequently caught covid, and 0.2% of the 2 dose vaccinated caught covid. But I did not see the number of unvaccinated people in this data, maybe I missed it. Surely the number of covid cases in the UK unvaccinated population is known over the same period.
cheers, and keep up with the great information.
Mike
Robert writes:
First thanks very much to both of you for taking the time and effort — which I know is significant for you — making these podcasts and videos. They are a valuable public service not to mention very educational and even entertaining.
Dr. Griffin says he likes to emphasize to people that COVID-19 is not a two-week disease: the situation is more complicated than just getting COVID-19, being sick for a couple of weeks or so, and then getting better (or not). If this is in fact the case, why is it that long COVID seems to be understood by the medical community as a sequela/sequelae to COVID-19 — I think Dr. Griffin calls it a subset of PACS (i.e., “Post Acute…”) — rather than part of the acute disease process? Is the distinction meaningful or just semantic?
Also, we’ve only had slightly less than two years’ experience with the disease. This doesn’t sound “long” to me (but then I’m 73).
I was diagnosed with paralytic polio at age four. I don’t remember a great deal about it, but it was termed “mild” and I did have clear paralytic signs and symptoms (though a negative lumbar puncture, which I definitely remember). From the old medical records I currently possess I know I had PT for a number of months before the orthopedist was willing to say that I was recovered. At the time this would all have been considered part of the acute disease, I think, even though during those months I would not have been shedding virus and likely would not have even been harboring any virus at all.
I heard Vincent say on a recent podcast that there is no “long polio.” However, Post Polio Syndrome/Post Polio Progressive Muscle Atrophy (which I seem to have been spared) is a real phenomenon rising above the clinical horizon following a (in this case significant) new sign- and new symptom-free period after the acute disease. To me that would be more consistent with what most people would understand as sequelae.
Robert