Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #90

[SouthAussie]

Happy New Year to you, South Aussie!

All of you in Oz and in NZ should have the greatest celebration of all! Your nations have acted heroically and with supreme rationality in the face of this COVID disaster.

And you, personally, are a beacon for us here at WS.

Thank you.

It has been so important for us to band together as a worldwide community this year - to tell our stories from each place around the world. So that we can move past the rhetoric from the leaders who never admit they were wrong, so that we can see what we should (and shouldn't) be doing to keep us on the right track - and, most of all, to support each other.

 

[SouthAussie]

<RSBM>
Some healthcare workers refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine, even with priority access
They are frontline workers with top-priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine, but they are refusing to take it.

At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, fewer than half of the 700 hospital workers eligible for the vaccine were willing to take the shot when it was first offered. At Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, one in five frontline nurses and doctors have declined the shot. Roughly 20% to 40% of L.A. County’s frontline workers who were offered the vaccine did the same, according to county public health officials.

So many frontline workers in Riverside County have refused the vaccine — an estimated 50% — that hospital and public officials met to strategize how best to distribute the unused doses, Public Health Director Kim Saruwatari said.

The vaccine doubts swirling among healthcare workers across the country come as a surprise to researchers, who assumed hospital staff would be among those most in tune with the scientific data backing the vaccines.

I am staggered at the attitudes of so many nurses.
I see FB posts from a pediatric nurse - a big advocate of Vitamin D at this time - who was not going to have the vaccine when she left for work one morning, then ended up having it that day ... I think due to peer pressure (judging by the photo her work colleague posted).

Especially when they are asking for nurses from other places (Australia, Taiwan) to come to the US and help out. They are supposed to go there and help, among staff who haven't bothered to protect themselves and others?

 

[shadowdancer]

I have just received my positive Covid-19 test result via email. It was a test I took just as a precaution and fully expected to come back negative. I have a medical condition that makes me vulnerable and it’s the early hours of the morning here in the UK so I can’t talk to anyone about it.

Just feeling scared and alone right now.

 

[Yvettea]

I have just received my positive Covid-19 test result via email. It was a test I took just as a precaution and fully expected to come back negative. I have a medical condition that makes me vulnerable and it’s the early hours of the morning here in the UK so I can’t talk to anyone about it.

Just feeling scared and alone right now.

So very sorry to hear this.

 

[thistle]

The Simpsons always call it-kind of spooky-

 

[Gibbo214]

I am staggered at the attitudes of so many nurses.
I see FB posts from a pediatric nurse - a big advocate of Vitamin D at this time - who was not going to have the vaccine when she left for work one morning, then ended up having it that day ... I think due to peer pressure (judging by the photo her work colleague posted).

Especially when they are asking for nurses from other places (Australia, Taiwan) to come to the US and help out. They are supposed to go there and help, among staff who haven't bothered to protect themselves and others?

Some countries have their medical staff (nurses anyway, maybe not doctors), have flu and Hep B shots as a condition of employment unless there is a medical reason why they cannot be (very rare).

 

[Gibbo214]

I have just received my positive Covid-19 test result via email. It was a test I took just as a precaution and fully expected to come back negative. I have a medical condition that makes me vulnerable and it’s the early hours of the morning here in the UK so I can’t talk to anyone about it.

Just feeling scared and alone right now.

We are here and we hope that you will be fine. Keep posting.

 

[acutename]

I honestly was not expecting that.

took the vaccines out two nights in a row; returned to the freezer after the first night. so planned out and weird- so people would get a vaccine that would not work. who does something like that?

WKRG | Wisconsin hospital worker arrested for spoiled vaccine doses

 

[Lexiintoronto]

I have just received my positive Covid-19 test result via email. It was a test I took just as a precaution and fully expected to come back negative. I have a medical condition that makes me vulnerable and it’s the early hours of the morning here in the UK so I can’t talk to anyone about it.

Just feeling scared and alone right now.

I’m sorry, shadowdancer. You’re not alone. I’m in Canada.

First... I looked it up: call 111 in the UK for non-emergency health advice. That would be the first important call that would help with medical questions.

It’s normal to be scared about a positive result, especially when you have a pre-existing condition. You said you’re surprised, so I’m hoping that you do not have any symptoms.

The sun will come up, and that will make you feel a bit better. It’s difficult to get bad news in the night—especially now.

A virtual hug for you. My late mom was from Kent. If I were there I’d be making you tea.

 

[LadyL]

I have just received my positive Covid-19 test result via email. It was a test I took just as a precaution and fully expected to come back negative. I have a medical condition that makes me vulnerable and it’s the early hours of the morning here in the UK so I can’t talk to anyone about it.

Just feeling scared and alone right now.

sending hugs

 

[acutename]

How could this happen? Regeneron isn’t packaged like an immunization. Regeneron is an infusion that takes an hour to administer intravenously. The person administering the drug must be incompetent or ill-informed.

probably not the place for wise remarks here, but I imagine a big box marked "COVID stuff" and some bottles rattling around in it, and the more experienced staffers are all in the ERs, so.... except we are told that the vaccine shipments are all outfitted with GPS... maybe need to leave the GPS on even after the vaccines come out of the airplane/truck.

 

[weepingangel]

I don’t think employers can mandate covid vax here under the emergency usage.
Flu vaccines were more highly enforced at work this year - medical exemptions only. All children in the state/MA must get flu vax - new this year. (Med exemption only I think)

Some countries have their medical staff (nurses anyway, maybe not doctors), have flu and Hep B shots as a condition of employment unless there is a medical reason why they cannot be (very rare).

 

[Gibbo214]

took the vaccines out two nights in a row; returned to the freezer after the first night. so planned out and weird- so people would get a vaccine that would not work. who does something like that?

WKRG | Wisconsin hospital worker arrested for spoiled vaccine doses

And why?

 

[shadowdancer]

Thank you everyone for your kindness. I have a mild cough, but none of the other typical COVID symptoms. I also have a blocked nose, which is not a typical COVID symptom.
I took the test because of the cough, but expected it to be negative due to the blocked nose.

 

[Marysmith]

More at link
Implications of Shortened Quarantine Among Household Contacts of Index Patients with Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection — Tennessee and Wisconsin, April–September 2020 | MMWR

Implications of Shortened Quarantine Among Household...
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
Weekly / January 1, 2021 / 69(5152);1633–1637
Melissa A. Rolfes, PhD1; Carlos G. Grijalva, MD2; Yuwei Zhu, MD2; Huong Q. McLean, PhD3; Kayla E. Hanson, MPH3; Edward A. Belongia, MD3; Natasha B. Halasa, MD2; Ahra Kim, MPH2; Jennifer Meece, PhD3; Carrie Reed, DSc2; H. Keipp Talbot, MD2; Alicia M. Fry, MD1 (View author affiliations)

View suggested citation
Summary
What is already known about this topic?

After exposure to COVID-19, a 14-day quarantine period can prevent further spread but might be challenging to maintain.

What is added by this report?

Among persons exposed to COVID-19 in the household who were asymptomatic and had negative laboratory test results through 7 days after symptom onset in the index patient, 19% experienced symptoms or received positive test results in the following week.

What are the implications for public health practice?

A shorter quarantine after household exposure to COVID-19 might be easier to adhere to but poses some risk for onward transmission. Persons released from quarantine before 14 days should continue to avoid close contact and wear masks when around others until 14 days after their last exposure.

Thank you for this. Knew it. So returning to work after 10 days of a positive result, some of the days which you experienced symptoms for is not a good idea? Who would have guessed?! Ugh.

 

[Gibbo214]

I don’t think employers can mandate covid vax here under the emergency usage.
Flu vaccines were more highly enforced at work this year - medical exemptions only. All children in the state/MA must get flu vax - new this year. (Med exemption only I think)

The countries I am talking about, have universal health care and they are public servants employed by the hospitals but funded by the governments, so they make the rules.

 

[weepingangel]

Just wanted to share this thread
With you (and anyone else) and send some virtual hugs. Hope you’re feeling ok (sounds like you weren’t having symptoms so that’s good?)
Eta-sorry just read back and saw mention of a cough etc
Hang in there !

WS Members/loved ones who have Coronavirus and testing

I have just received my positive Covid-19 test result via email. It was a test I took just as a precaution and fully expected to come back negative. I have a medical condition that makes me vulnerable and it’s the early hours of the morning here in the UK so I can’t talk to anyone about it.

Just feeling scared and alone right now.

 

[whitelilac]

Thank you everyone for your kindness. I have a mild cough, but none of the other typical COVID symptoms. I also have a blocked nose, which is not a typical COVID symptom.
I took the test because of the cough, but expected it to be negative due to the blocked nose.

I'm sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I can understand that you feel scared and vulnerable. I will keep you in my thoughts.

 

[margarita25]

OVER 500 DOSES GONE. Covid-19 Live Updates: A Worker Accused of Spoiling More Than 500 Vaccine Doses Is Arrested

“A pharmacist at a Wisconsin hospital has been arrested and accused of intentionally removing more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine from refrigeration last week, knowing that the vaccines would be rendered useless and that the people receiving them would think they were protected against the virus when they were not, the police department in Grafton, Wisconsin, said Thursday.”

This is so crazy...What else might this pharmacist have done wrt dispensing medications? This reminds of those crazy nurses who kill infants, jmo.

Can you imagine how you’d feel, if you were one of those people who received a spoiled vaccine? Or one of those people who received regeneron? How the heck did that even happen?

 

[MimosaMornings]

Thank you everyone for your kindness. I have a mild cough, but none of the other typical COVID symptoms. I also have a blocked nose, which is not a typical COVID symptom.
I took the test because of the cough, but expected it to be negative due to the blocked nose.

My aunt and uncle had a runny nose and headache- only symptoms and they tested positive. My two cousins had minor nasal congestion and thought it was a little cold but tested positive. So many variations of symptoms it seems.
Thinking of you across the miles.