Carolina writes:
Good evening Dr. Griffin and hope this finds you well,
My uncle Andy (61) woke up on Monday with a sore throat and tested positive for coronavirus. He has an international flight scheduled for Sunday, where he’ll be abroad for a long time. He will receive paxlovid tonight. He’s fully vaccinated and in an at-risk age group. His primary concern is infecting others.
How should he approach this delicate situation in terms of behavior? And what should the family expect from doctor feedback at this point?
Thank you for everything you do, I cannot express how much I appreciate your work. You’re a beacon of light and education in a time of misinformation and confusion.
Best wishes,
Caroline
PS. If I know my uncle, he’d get a kick out of you mentioning him by name. If you’re up for it, his name’s Andy :).
Laurie writes:
We are a big busy pediatric office in San Francisco. We are excited to finally be able to offer COVID vaccines for our youngest patients. We of course are again barraged by questions from our families eager to vaccinate their infants and kids. The most common question by far is “how long should we wait after our recent COVID infection to get the vaccine.”
Of course everyone has their own unique story. But baring a compelling reason to vaccinate ASAP, my understanding is that it is best to wait 2-3 months after a recent disease to vaccinate. The AAP is saying otherwise. Pediatricians across the US await your response with baited breath – we can not reach a consensus on this one!
We will be using Moderna btw and I am curious what local peds are choosing back East.
All the best,
Laurie
Lu writes:
I am a big fan of twiv and sister-podcasts, loved your lectures as well, I hope you do some more live-stream lectures soon!
Question for Daniel: my mother is 75, high BMI, type2 diabetes, hypertension. She had 4 shots of Phizer, the last one was in February this year. Next month she will be travelling to the US to stay with her daughter and grand-children for two months. My question: if she gets COVID would she be able to have access to Paxlovid as foreign visitor? Whom should she turn to? She will be staying in the New Canaan, CT area.
And one more question, if that’s ok, in our circle we come across a number of people ( myself included) who had symptoms but the antigen test did not turn positive till 3-4 days later, after the worst of symptoms had resolved! In my mother’s case this would be bad to miss the early window of opportunity for antiviral treatment. I thought the only thing we can do is if symptoms appear, do a daily antigen test and if negative do a PCR test, any other advice?
Thanks for all you do.
Best wishes,
Lu
Cliff writes:
Dear Dr. Griffin:
I have a question regarding the timing of my grandson’s vaccination. During the second trimester of her pregnancy my daughter received both doses of the Moderna vaccine and received a booster 3 months post-partum. The grandson was born early August, 2021 and is being breast fed by his mother. In May the mother had some symptoms of COVID-19 and had a positive RT-PCR test, and during this time her son, 9 months old, had flu-like symptoms but did not test positive. With the availability of a vaccine for infants should the boy receive the first dose now, or should we wait until 3 months after the May episode to have him vaccinated? The CDC states that children “can” wait for 3 months after a SARS-CoV-2 infection before being vaccinated. How protective is mother’s milk when compared with vaccination? Will the mother’s milk act as convalescent sera and decrease the effectiveness of the vaccine? The mother intends to wean her child when he is 1 year old. Is it best to wait until then to have him vaccinated?
Many kudos for your expertise,
Cliff
