As more and more statisticians receive one of the two COVID-19 vaccines currently available, doctors are learning more about the side effects that could accompany double-injection treatments. These side effects were strong enough that a small number of vaccinated health professionals had to stop working in the days following their shots.
But health officials anticipated this possibility and came up with a plan.
It has been widely accepted that the first doses for both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines produce some sensitivity around the injection site, but not much more. The second injection of the Modern Vaccine, however, has developed a reputation for packing up more COVID-like symptoms (mostly pain, fatigue, chills, and fever) shortly after receiving the vaccine, while the Pfizer vaccine appears. . be softer.
As previously reported by WCPO, local health officials estimate that 20% of those who received Moderna’s second vaccine reported more serious side effects from the second injection than the first.
When Northern Kentucky nurse Taylor Poore received her second dose of Modern on Monday, she said she could feel the expected increase in symptoms, but it only lasted about eight hours.
“I felt like I was running a low level temperature, but nothing, you know, was devastating to the point that I felt like I couldn’t work or, you know, nothing like that. [I] I just felt tired and sore. “
He said he returned to normal the next morning.
But Dr. Meghan Markovich said even a small minority of vaccine recipients who had to call off work because of its side effects was enough to make St. John’s hospitals. Elizabeth (where she has family practice and helps with vaccine deployment) step in when employees would receive their shots.
“We offered different appointment dates for staff so they were a little staggered, knowing this could happen,” he told WCPO.
Markovich, in his office, made up of 20 staff members, said he has had a call to a patient for vaccine side effects.
“Luckily, I think, that number has been pretty low that he has had to stay home from work,” he said.
In southwest Ohio, while most of the vaccines administered have been the Pfizer variety, which appears to have milder side effects than the Modern, there has still been a small population of long-term health care workers who they called sick after their second dose, according to Peter Van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association.
“We haven’t heard any comments from members about really significant reactions,” Van Runkle told WCPO. “What we’ve heard is mostly, yes, we’ve made some people get distracted, or one or two in general, or none.”
Van Runkle said he had seen some national recommendations for health care providers to stagger vaccines from his staff, but his organization, which represents more than 1,000 long-term care and care centers across the state, suggested that the centers get their staff vaccinated as soon as possible.
“Especially for long-term care providers, it’s been the other way around, like trying to get people to do it instead of saying,‘ Wait a minute, ’” he said.
Van Runkle worries that too much hype about the possible side effects of vaccines could cause fewer people, including health workers, to choose the vaccine when it is first available.
“Part of the concern between staff and things they didn’t participate in has been around side effects,” he said. “The story you shared of Moderna, which, if this is spread, will create more concern on the part of people because they are already afraid.”