The total number of these cases we are seeing is still thankfully small compared to the total number of vaccines being given, but it is probably a trend to watch out for. In Chicago, another medical center suspended COVID vaccines after four health workers became ill after being vaccinated. None of the reactions seem to be life-threatening and three of the four are “resting at home” and are apparently doing well. A fourth worker was still receiving additional treatment yesterday. (CBS Chicago)
Advocate Condell Medical Center has suspended COVID-19 vaccines after four employees experienced reactions shortly after receiving the vaccine, according to a statement from attorney Aurora Health.
Since Thursday, four team members have been experiencing reactions, including tingling and high heart rate.
The four team members represent less than 0.15% of the approximately 3,000 people who have received the vaccine so far at Advocate Aurora Health.
A statement from the medical center described the decision to stop vaccinations as one made out of “extreme caution”. It seems right, mostly because they didn’t stop the procedure at their other eight outlets in the region.
This means that of the approximately 3,000 people Advocate Aurora Health has vaccinated to date, four of them have had negative, but not critical, reactions so far. This results in just over one-tenth of one percent of patients who have had problems with allergic reactions or other complications. This pattern is no different from the problem I wrote about the other day. 0.1 percent is certainly a small fraction, but when you apply this to the nearly 300 million people who are expected to be vaccinated in the coming months in the United States, we can expect somewhere between 400,000 and a half million of people. find this problem.
Among this half a million, it is almost certain that we will see some of the worst cases in which the reaction is very serious, if not fatal. But the thing is, it’s still such a low number that the government can’t afford to throw up its hands and end the program. The cost of not vaccinating everyone who is willing to pull would certainly be vastly higher than pulling ahead. Whenever a new drug is deployed and widely distributed, there are always a number of patients who present with problems that do not appear during product development and testing trials.
But it is that phrase “everyone who is willing to shoot” to which I keep returning. How many stories like this will we have to see before people start to lose confidence and decide not to? Please note that I am asking this question as one of the people who has already made the decision to discontinue the vaccine myself until I see a lot more data, especially for those in my general age group and those with underlying conditions. . And I mean much more data. Even though I was informed that I was eligible for the second round of people being offered vaccines, I don’t see myself seriously going down to my doctor’s office and volunteering for at least a few months.
The last factor we all hope to know is the duration of immunity that these vaccines offer. If it’s at least good for a few years, it’s probably worth the stress and anxiety to move on and do it. But if it turns out to be like the flu shot, where we’re told you have to get a fresh one every fall, I’ll probably think twice.