Tag Archives: vaccinated

World

Parents refuse use of vaccinated blood in life-saving surgery on baby | New Zealand

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New Zealand’s health service has made a court application over the guardianship of a four-month-old baby whose parents are refusing to allow his life-saving heart surgery to go ahead unless non-vaccinated blood is used.

The parents of the baby discussed their son’s health situation and their medical preferences in an interview with an anti-vaccination campaigner.

In the interview the parents say their baby has severe pulmonary valve stenosis, and that he needs surgery “almost immediately”, but that they are “extremely concerned with the blood [the doctors] are going to use”.

“We don’t want blood that is tainted by vaccination,” the father said. “That’s the end of the deal – we are fine with anything else these doctors want to do.”

The vaccines to prevent severe disease and death from Covid-19 have been found to be extremely safe and effective, with millions of people around the world vaccinated.

According to the blood service, NZ Blood, any Covid-19 vaccine in the blood is broken down soon after the injection.

In a statement, Dr Mike Shepherd, Auckland’s interim director at the health service, Te Whatu Ora, said he knows it can be worrying for parents who have an unwell child and are making decisions about their care.

Te Whatu Ora filed papers in the Auckland high court on Monday under the Care of Children Act. It asked that the baby’s guardianship be moved from his parents so consent could be given to use donated blood, the NZ Herald reported.

“The decision to make an application to the court is always made with the best interests of the child in mind and following extensive conversations with whānau,” Shepherd said.

“As this matter is before the courts, we will not be commenting further.”

On Wednesday, the parties appeared at the court to set a date for an urgent hearing, while a group of 100 anti-vaccination supporters gathered outside the building.

Te Whatu Ora’s lawyer Paul White told the court that medical professionals have said a child with such a condition would have been treated several weeks ago in normal circumstances; while the parents’ lawyer Sue Grey – another prominent anti-vaccination campaigner – said the parents wanted better care than what the state was offering.

“Because they label my clients as conspiracy theorists, [their position] is that anything my clients say can be ignored,” she said.

NZ Blood said: “All donated blood also gets filtered during processing, so any trace amounts that may still be present poses no risk to recipients.

“We do not separate or label blood based on a donor’s Covid-19 vaccination status.” It added there was no evidence that previous vaccination affected the quality of blood for transfusion.

A lecturer in bioethics at the University of Otago, Josephine Johnston, told RNZ it was very rare for a case to get this far. It was a distressing case for everyone involved, she added, because there was significant disagreement between the parents and the healthcare teams, both of whom were trying to act in the best interests of the child.

“Parents have a lot of decision-making authority over their child’s life – there’s a huge zone of discretion for parents to make decisions including about medical issues,” Johnston said.

“But there are limits to that, and this is one of those tragic cases where the limit has life and death consequences.”

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Health

Georgia Department of Public Health urges people to get vaccinated against the flu ahead of holidays – WSB-TV Channel 2

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ATLANTA — The Georgia Department of Public Health is urging Georgians to vaccinate against the flu as the holiday season approaches, it announced in a release.

According to a release from the department, the flu is spreading earlier than we’ve seen in recent years.“The single most effective way to prevent the flu is the flu vaccine. Everyone over the age of 6 months should get a flu vaccine,” said Kathleen E. Toomey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health. “The holidays bring gatherings with family and friends and increase the likelihood of spreading the flu. Now is the time to get vaccinated.”

It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against the flu, according to the department. The release mentions that with Thanksgiving and other holidays approaching, it is crucial to plan ahead and get vaccinated now.

The flu vaccine is available at public health departments, doctors’ offices, grocery stores, neighborhood clinics and pharmacies. To find a location near you, click on https://www.vaccines.gov/find-vaccines/. The flu vaccine can be administered at the same time as the COVID-19 vaccine, so it’s a good time to get your updated booster, too.

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Symptoms of flu include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, chills and fatigue. One of the most pronounced flu symptoms is an overall feeling of achiness and malaise that comes on quickly.

In addition to the early arrival of flu, respiratory syncytial virus or RSV is also affecting a high number of Georgians, especially young children and older adults. RSV is a common respiratory virus that causes cold-like symptoms but can lead to lung inflammation and pneumonia. It is especially serious in infants because of the small airways in their lungs. Call your healthcare professional if you or your child are having difficulty breathing, not drinking enough fluids, or experiencing worsening symptoms. There is no vaccine for RSV.

The department lists the following precautions as ways to best avoid the flu:

•Frequent and thorough handwashing with soap and warm water.

• Alcohol-based gels are the next best thing if you don’t have access to soap and water.

•Cough or sneeze into the crook of your elbow or arm to help prevent the spread of the flu.

•Avoid touching your face as flu germs can get into the body through mucous membranes of the nose, mouth and eyes.

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The department reminds Georgians to stay home from work and school if they are feeling sick so as to not spread the flu or RSV.

For information about the flu and how to prevent it, log on to dph.ga.gov/flu. You can learn more about RSV at https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html.

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Health

You may still get COVID even if you’re vaccinated; watch out for these 5 symptoms

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In order to dispel the misconception that people who have already been exposed to the coronavirus are immune to future infections, a recent study highlighted five frequent symptoms found in individuals who have received the coronavirus vaccination. These five symptoms, according to the UK’s ZOE COVID, are what the vaccinated people need to be alert for.

Chronic Cough

A fresh, persistent cough is typical with COVID. Long-term, persistent coughing can make a person drowsy. The person may get exhausted and unable to perform even basic everyday tasks as a result. Herbal medicines can be used to treat chronic coughs at home. When a coughing spell is about to begin, try drinking some ginger tea to soothe the discomfort.

Runny nose

A runny nose is a typical symptom, as per the study. This is a typical indicator that was observed in earlier COVID waves as well. People still get runny noses even after receiving the recommended vaccinations because it is a respiratory ailment. The virus infection causes watery nasal discharge, which is visible all day long. Few persons who have a runny nose also experience nasal channel obstruction. Steaming can occasionally be therapeutic.

Also Read: Avoid going out: Expert warns elderly people as highly-infectious new COVID variant causes alarm

Nose blockage

When the nose is obstructed, breathing is difficult. You gasp for oxygen even though you are seated. Sleeping becomes arduous when a person can’t breathe normally while doing so due to a blocked nose. In order to keep the nasal passages clear of infections, it is advisable to breathe in steam rather than nasal sprays, which may only offer temporary relief.

Headache

Along with a sore throat, a cough and a blocked nose, a headache is also noticeable. Simple functions like breathing might become very difficult to do, which can have a big effect on your head. The infection may also result in pain and headaches.

Also Read: New Covid variant alert: Meet omicron’s newest cousin, BF.7

Throat pain

This symptom became one of the most common during the early phases of the Omicron driven COVID wave. The ZOE COVID study found that sore throats were the most prevalent COVID symptoms among individuals who had received immunizations. A constant burning sensation in the throat, trouble swallowing, and difficulty speaking are the hallmarks of this condition.

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Health

Stop saying fully vaccinated, use ‘up-to-date’ instead

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If you still say “fully vaccinated” for Covid, it’s time to stop.

With new boosters on the market and an ever-evolving virus, experts say the term no longer means being the most protected you can be. They point to two, far more appropriate alternatives to use in this current phase of the pandemic: “up-to-date” with Covid vaccines or simply indicating whether you’ve gotten your latest booster shot.

“I certainly would say that we need to stop using it, set that aside altogether. ‘Fully vaccinated’ is not the term that we want to use,” Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida, tells CNBC Make It.

The definition of fully vaccinated hasn’t changed since the first Covid vaccines were rolled out almost two years ago. It means two initial doses of a vaccine from Pfizer, Moderna or Novavax, or one dose from Johnson & Johnson. It’s synonymous with completing your primary series of Covid vaccines.

Here’s why experts say you shouldn’t use the term anymore, and what you should do instead: 

What’s wrong with saying ‘fully vaccinated?’

“Fully vaccinated” was originally a simple way to remind most people — anyone who didn’t get J&J’s vaccine — that they needed two shots instead of one to get full protection against Covid during late 2020 and early 2021, Prins says.

But Covid has changed a lot since then, and so has the meaning of being fully protected.

Last year, the emergence of new variants like delta and omicron fueled new infections and reinfections among fully vaccinated Americans. It became clear that a primary series’ protection against infection started to wane after a few months, and that booster doses were required to prevent severe outcomes from Covid, says Prins.

To put it simply, being fully vaccinated doesn’t give you full protection against Covid anymore. Even if you recently finished your primary series, omicron’s BA.5 subvariant and a flurry of other sublineages appear increasingly adept at dodging the protection you get from the original mRNA vaccines.

What should I say instead? 

Say you’re “up-to-date” on your Covid vaccines, Prins recommends. It’s a quick way of acknowledging that if you’re eligible for a shot, you’ve received it — meaning you’re the most protected you can be in that moment.

The shift in your vocabulary could affect how you communicate with the people around you. For example, you should make sure loved ones are “up-to-date” on their vaccines before coming to a gathering you’re organizing, Prins says.

The phrase does run the risk of feeling jargony, says Susan Hassig, an associate professor of epidemiology at Tulane University. “If you ask if a person is up-to-date, there’s an assumption that they have a shared understanding about what it means — and they may not,” she says.

Hassig points to a more “functional question” you can ask instead: Have you gotten the new booster? 

“Being far more explicit in what you’re asking would be a good thing if they don’t know what [up-to-date] means,” she says.

You can always educate the people around you about what “up-to-date” means, Prins notes. That may also involve knowing the eligibility guidelines for different Covid shots, and finding “respectful” ways to ask friends or family members whether they meet a dose’s requirements.

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Health

Unvaccinated individuals 14 times more likely to get monkeypox than vaccinated, new US data shows

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CNN
 — 

Eligible individuals who did not receive the monkeypox vaccine were around 14 times likelier to become infected with the virus than those who were vaccinated, according to federal government data described to CNN by multiple US health officials.

That figure reflects the first wave of authoritative data collected by the Biden administration on the efficacy of the monkeypox vaccine that is currently being administered across the United States. The data marks an important milestone in the administration’s fight against monkeypox, particularly given the unprecedented nature of this year’s outbreak. Details of these early findings, said to be based on data collected from 32 states, could be unveiled publicly as early as Wednesday, when the White House monkeypox response team is expected to hold its next press briefing.

Multiple health officials said that the vaccines data has the administration feeling increasingly optimistic about the efficacy of the two-dose Jynneos monkeypox vaccine – and the possibility of ultimately eliminating the current outbreak in the US altogether.

“We are cautiously optimistic about the study and think if we continue to get vaccines out to those that are at highest risk for disease, and if we continue to promote the behavioral changes that we know work, that the combination of those two will allow us to continue to see decreases in cases and hopefully eliminate the current monkeypox outbreak in the United States,” one senior health official told CNN.

The official cautioned that there are some important caveats to the findings. For example, the latest study can’t say how much changes in human behavior might be a factor for the vaccinated individuals, they said.

“What it doesn’t let us do is fully disentangle pieces of this that may be behavioral change pieces that may be related to sexual networks or to who people are coming into contact with,” the official said. “We know that at the start of the monkeypox outbreak, a lot of gay and bisexual men changed their behaviors.”

There are also outstanding questions about durability of the vaccine and how long the protection would last. US health officials have seen protection from monkeypox for those vaccinated with Jynneos as early as two weeks after the first dose, but are continuing to push for anyone eligible to get both doses of the vaccine regimen for maximum protection.

“We know this is a two-dose vaccine and we’re continuing to encourage people to get the second dose because all of the prior studies have shown that when you get that second dose, you have a more profound immune response,” the official said.

These findings coincide with a sense of “cautious optimism” recently expressed by top US health officials about the general trajectory of the outbreak, as the country has seen a decline in new monkeypox cases. More than 25,000 US monkeypox cases have been identified during the outbreak.

“Over the last several weeks, we’ve been pleased to see a decline in the growth of new cases here and abroad, though there are areas of the US where the rate of rise in new cases is still increasing,” US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month. “We approach this news with cautious optimism.”

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Health

Ask Damon: Should I get my friends’ baby vaccinated without telling them?

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Hi Damon: My best friend is an antivaxxer (not only covid, all the vaccines). His wife is, too. They have a 9-month-old baby and they haven’t vaccinated him. I babysit for them every other weekend. Should I take the baby to get his shots without telling them?

Anonymous: My feelings on vaccinations are well-documented. But just in case you’re unfamiliar, a quick refresh:

I think I’ve reached the threshold of intellect where I’m just smart enough to know that I’m not that smart. I have some gifts and some talents, I guess. But with medical science, I trust that the PhDs and MDs who’ve spent thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn about it, and whose livelihoods are predicated on the retention and application of that knowledge, know much more about it than I’d ever know. And I’m not just talking about some faceless wall of anonymous white-coated professionals, but family and good friends. A neighbor. An ex-girlfriend. All medical doctors or science-related PhDs unanimous in their belief — no, plea — that everyone get vaccinated.

And look, I’m a Black American. My skepticism of our health-care system, based on my awareness of the profound racial disparities existing within it — historically, and presently — is justified. But, as I wrote in a New York Times essay last year, my desire to prevent more infection, sickness and death is a force greater than cynicism.

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That said, I am also a parent of two small children. And if someone took them, against my will, to get vaccinated? Let’s just say that I was advised, by my editors, for legal-ish reasons, not to say what I’d do to that person.

Have a question for Damon? Submit it here or email askdamon@washpost.com.

What you’re suggesting is reckless, egregious and possibly even criminal. Forty-three states require a parent’s permission to vaccinate a child. The age where parental consent is no longer necessary depends on the state, and ranges between 15 and 18. But these laws are for teenagers who wish to get vaccinated, not adults who want to sneak their friends’ babies to the clinic.

Of course, if you believe that your friends are abusing their children, you have a responsibility to report them. But despite the fact that I do agree with you on the necessity of vaccination, and that your friends are acting dangerously, you’ve burrowed so deeply in the rabbit hole of self-righteousness that you’ve come up on the wrong side.

I was tempted to suggest that you attempt to sway them into getting vaccinated, but if an active pandemic that has killed millions of people — plus all of the social restrictions of being unvaccinated — hasn’t convinced them yet, I’m not sure what else would. Maybe an ultimatum, where you tell them you don’t feel safe around them anymore. You’d risk ending that relationship, sure. But I’d rather lose friends than commit a crime and lose my freedom.

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World

non-fully vaccinated travelers don’t need quarantine from Monday

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People sit outside a bar at Emily Hill in Singapore, on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.

Ore Huiying | Bloomberg | Getty Images

SINGAPORE — Singapore is set to allow non-fully vaccinated travelers to skip quarantine on arrival starting Monday, authorities announced Wednesday.

The country is also set to remove indoor mask requirements from Aug. 29, as it seeks to take another step toward living with Covid.

While the further easing of safety and border measures is a “significant milestone,” the country must still “be mentally prepared for any sudden change because we don’t know how this virus will mutate and what the next variant will look like,” said Singapore’s deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong, who is also co-chair of the Covid task force in Singapore.

Visitors who are not fully vaccinated will still be required to test negative for Covid within 2 days prior to their departure for Singapore. But they will no longer need to serve a 7-day quarantine at home or at their place of residence.

Currently, fully vaccinated travelers can enter Singapore without taking Covid-19 tests or undergoing quarantine.

Non-vaccinated long-term visitors and short-term visitors who are 13 years and above are currently required to apply for entry approval to enter Singapore. This requirement will also be lifted from Monday, according to the Ministry of Health.

Easing of mask requirements

Masks will be optional indoors and required in special settings, such as on public transportation and in health-care settings like hospitals, residential care homes and ambulances from Monday, the health ministry said. They are optional in taxis, private hires and in the airport.

“The reason is that, we have identified areas where essential services are being carried out in enclosed, crowded spaces and which are frequently used by vulnerable persons,” said Wong, who is also the country’s finance minister.

The decision to lift mask requirements was first announced by Prime Minster Lee Hsien Loong on Sunday.

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Currently, masks are required in nearly all indoor settings, with the exception of workplaces where there are no physical interaction or customer-facing areas.

“For business and employers, they have the discretion to decide whether or not they might want to do this [from] a workplace safety point of view … we are lifting a mandatory requirement for mask-wearing but it is optional,” said Wong.

Boosters

In preparation for the next wave of omicron, the health ministry said a second mRNA Covid booster is now recommended for those who are 60 years and above.

Previously, second boosters were only recommended for those who were 80 years and older.

Around 93% of the population completed the primary vaccination series as of Monday, while 79% of the total population received boosters.

The high booster rate is a “key reason” that the nation has been able to ride through the current Covid wave, said Singapore’s health minister Ong Ye Kung.

Ong stressed the need to expand recommendations to of second boosters to those 60 to 79 years old — five months after their first booster — even though the first booster has provided strong protection against severe illnesses for those in this age group.

The health ministry also recommended that children between 5 to 11 years old receive one booster — five months after the second dose of their primary vaccination series — to boost their protection.

Covid situation in Singapore

Plans are in place for a potential new Covid wave, perhaps in the winter, said Wong.

“We are continuing to monitor closely and we have drawer plans in place for various contingencies including scaling up our healthcare capacity as well as … vaccination operations if and when the need arises,” Wong said at the press conference on Wednesday.

He added that those plans would “buy us time,” should there be a Covid wave that is aggressive and dangerous.

Average daily infections over a 7-day period fell to 2,700 as of Tuesday, as daily infections continued to fall from a record 26,032 infections on Feb. 22. Most of those infected in Singapore have mild or no symptoms.

The Southeast Asian country further eased Covid measures at the end of April. Social gatherings will no longer be limited to 10 people and people will not need to keep 1 meter apart. 

People wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19 in Singapore.

Maverick Asio | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

In April, separate rules for unvaccinated people were also removed, with some exceptions.

Those who are not vaccinated will still not be allowed to dine in, or participate in events with more than 500 people. Neither can they visit nightlife establishments where dancing is involved.

However, food and beverage outlets won’t be required to check the vaccination statuses of customers, the health ministry said in a press release.

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Health

Why some vaccinated people can still spread polio

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One case — and evidence in sewage of more spread — may not sound significant, and Americans are highly vaccinated against polio, meaning most people are protected from paralysis. According to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 92% of children in the United States have received polio inoculations by age 2.

But there’s a reason why a single case puts health officials on alert. Unvaccinated and undervaccinated are at risk for severe disease, but the spread may not be obvious — in part because of a vaccine switch that happened more than two decades ago.

Vaccinated people are not in harm’s way if they catch poliovirus, which spreads from the human intestinal tract via the fecal-oral route: a person gets stool germs on their hands, touches something or shakes hands with another person, and that person puts their contaminated hands in their nose or mouth. This is why younger kids — those still in diapers — are especially susceptible to infection.

Poliovirus can infect cells in the gut and cause a mild illness — cramping, diarrhea or constipation. Occasionally, though, the virus will slip past the intestinal barrier and into the bloodstream, where it will home in on motor neurons in the spinal cord — the cells that tell muscles to move. When the virus infects these cells, it destroys them, leaving people with lifelong paralysis.

Doctors estimate that there’s one case of paralytic polio for every 300 to 1,000 mild infections.

A tale of two vaccines

Until the year 2000, two kinds of vaccines were used to inoculate Americans against polio — vaccine drops, sometimes given on sugar cubes, that were made with live, weakened poliovirus, and an injected vaccine that uses killed polio virus.

There are several key differences between the vaccines, but a big one is that the oral vaccine induces so-called mucosal immunity, so that if a vaccinated person ever comes into contact with poliovirus again, it cannot make copies of itself in their gut, and will not get passed on to someone else.

There’s also a downside to using the oral vaccine, however.

“The big drawback to the oral polio vaccine is you shed it,” said Dr. James Campbell, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health

Very rarely, about once in every 3 million times it is given, the weakened virus in the oral vaccine can escape the gut and cause paralysis.

The weakened virus can also shed in stool, and rarely, it will mutate and change back to a form of the virus that can cause paralysis, especially if the virus is being transmitted where there’s poor sanitation and low vaccination rates.

“So while we were preventing polio with this vaccine, we were also rarely creating vaccine-associated polio myelitis,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

This is what happened to the young adult in New York. Genetic sequencing showed that the virus that paralyzed him originated from an oral vaccine, which is still used in other countries.

The injected vaccine, which uses the killed virus, can’t change back into a harmful form. While the oral vaccine is relatively safe, the injected vaccine is even safer.

In 2000, public health officials decided the US should only use shots, which contain the inactivated virus, to vaccinate against polio.

Some vaccinated people can spread the virus

There is a drawback to using the injected vaccine, however. While it prevents paralysis, it doesn’t necessarily prevent infection.

Because of this, young adults and children vaccinated since the switch can still be infected with poliovirus in their intestines and shed the virus in their stool.

“They’re protected against a paralytic disease, but they can still harbor the virus and spread it to others. And that’s the circumstance we have now in New York,” Schaffner says.

“So you could get essentially the entire community carrying this virus in their intestines, but they don’t even know it’s there.”

That’s not a big problem if everyone around them is also protected, Schaffner says. But the fear is that silent transmission could carry the virus to pockets of people who haven’t been vaccinated against polio, and they could wind up with more severe outcomes.

“In highly unvaccinated communities, especially when there’s a lot of people living in the same place who are unvaccinated, it just gives the opportunity for the virus to shed and pass person to person more commonly,” Campbell says.

One group that could be in the at-risk category is children. Kids typically get four polio vaccines before the age of 6. They get shots at 2 months, 4 months, a third shot between ages 6 and 18 months, and the fourth shot is due sometime between ages 4 and 6.

Schaffner says kids who are up to date on their vaccines, but not yet fully vaccinated, may be at increased risk from a polio infection, but no one really knows.

“The answer would be, frankly, that they’re partially protected,” Schaffner said.

“It’s the full series that gives you full protection,” he said. “We are nervous about children who are in the vaccine progression, but have not yet been old enough to receive all the vaccines.”

Push for more vaccinations

In London — where poliovirus has been detected in wastewater, but not yet diagnosed in a person — health officials decided to give an extra dose of vaccine to all children ages 1 through 9, just in case.

Officials in New York say vaccination for everyone is key to ensuring the virus doesn’t disable more Americans.

“Our single case of polio could be the tip of the iceberg, we don’t know,” said Rockland County Executive Ed Day in a video posted to Facebook. “As you can see, that could turn into a bit of a wildfire.”

“That only happens if people are not vaccinated,” he said.

Read original article here

Health

Why some vaccinated people can still spread polio

Leave a comment

One case — and evidence in sewage of more spread — may not sound significant, and Americans are highly vaccinated against polio, meaning most people are protected from paralysis. According to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 92% of children in the United States have received polio inoculations by age 2.

But there’s a reason why a single case puts health officials on alert. Unvaccinated and undervaccinated are at risk for severe disease, but the spread may not be obvious — in part because of a vaccine switch that happened more than two decades ago.

Vaccinated people are not in harm’s way if they catch poliovirus, which spreads from the human intestinal tract via the fecal-oral route: a person gets stool germs on their hands, touches something or shakes hands with another person, and that person puts their contaminated hands in their nose or mouth. This is why younger kids — those still in diapers — are especially susceptible to infection.

Poliovirus can infect cells in the gut and cause a mild illness — cramping, diarrhea or constipation. Occasionally, though, the virus will slip past the intestinal barrier and into the bloodstream, where it will home in on motor neurons in the spinal cord — the cells that tell muscles to move. When the virus infects these cells, it destroys them, leaving people with lifelong paralysis.

Doctors estimate that there’s one case of paralytic polio for every 300 to 1,000 mild infections.

A tale of two vaccines

Until the year 2000, two kinds of vaccines were used to inoculate Americans against polio — vaccine drops, sometimes given on sugar cubes, that were made with live, weakened poliovirus, and an injected vaccine that uses killed polio virus.

There are several key differences between the vaccines, but a big one is that the oral vaccine induces so-called mucosal immunity, so that if a vaccinated person ever comes into contact with poliovirus again, it cannot make copies of itself in their gut, and will not get passed on to someone else.

There’s also a downside to using the oral vaccine, however.

“The big drawback to the oral polio vaccine is you shed it,” said Dr. James Campbell, a pediatrician and vaccine researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health

Very rarely, about once in every 3 million times it is given, the weakened virus in the oral vaccine can escape the gut and cause paralysis.

The weakened virus can also shed in stool, and rarely, it will mutate and change back to a form of the virus that can cause paralysis, especially if the virus is being transmitted where there’s poor sanitation and low vaccination rates.

“So while we were preventing polio with this vaccine, we were also rarely creating vaccine-associated polio myelitis,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

This is what happened to the young adult in New York. Genetic sequencing showed that the virus that paralyzed him originated from an oral vaccine, which is still used in other countries.

The injected vaccine, which uses the killed virus, can’t change back into a harmful form. While the oral vaccine is relatively safe, the injected vaccine is even safer.

In 2000, public health officials decided the US should only use shots, which contain the inactivated virus, to vaccinate against polio.

Some vaccinated people can spread the virus

There is a drawback to using the injected vaccine, however. While it prevents paralysis, it doesn’t necessarily prevent infection.

Because of this, young adults and children vaccinated since the switch can still be infected with poliovirus in their intestines and shed the virus in their stool.

“They’re protected against a paralytic disease, but they can still harbor the virus and spread it to others. And that’s the circumstance we have now in New York,” Schaffner says.

“So you could get essentially the entire community carrying this virus in their intestines, but they don’t even know it’s there.”

That’s not a big problem if everyone around them is also protected, Schaffner says. But the fear is that silent transmission could carry the virus to pockets of people who haven’t been vaccinated against polio, and they could wind up with more severe outcomes.

“In highly unvaccinated communities, especially when there’s a lot of people living in the same place who are unvaccinated, it just gives the opportunity for the virus to shed and pass person to person more commonly,” Campbell says.

One group that could be in the at-risk category is children. Kids typically get four polio vaccines before the age of 6. They get shots at 2 months, 4 months, a third shot between ages 6 and 18 months, and the fourth shot is due sometime between ages 4 and 6.

Schaffner says kids who are up to date on their vaccines, but not yet fully vaccinated, may be at increased risk from a polio infection, but no one really knows.

“The answer would be, frankly, that they’re partially protected,” Schaffner said.

“It’s the full series that gives you full protection,” he said. “We are nervous about children who are in the vaccine progression, but have not yet been old enough to receive all the vaccines.”

Push for more vaccinations

In London — where poliovirus has been detected in wastewater, but not yet diagnosed in a person — health officials decided to give an extra dose of vaccine to all children ages 1 through 9, just in case.

Officials in New York say vaccination for everyone is key to ensuring the virus doesn’t disable more Americans.

“Our single case of polio could be the tip of the iceberg, we don’t know,” said Rockland County Executive Ed Day in a video posted to Facebook. “As you can see, that could turn into a bit of a wildfire.”

“That only happens if people are not vaccinated,” he said.

Read original article here

Health

Nine Omicron Covid symptoms affecting the fully vaccinated – and signs you may have it

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The UK appears to have just seen off its fifth wave of Covid-19 infections, although experts continue to fear that another could arrive this autumn once the weather turns unless proper precautions are taken.

The country saw a 43 per cent spike in coronavirus cases at the beginning of June, seemingly caused by people coming together to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee over the course of a four-day weekend.

Driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of Omicron – the strain that spread so rapidly across the UK in December 2021 and January 2022 before gradually falling away – cases continued to rise to a peak of around 4.6m cases in mid-July before gradually beginning to decline.

While August finds Britain in a much better place in terms of infections, closer to just 120,000 per day according to the Zoe Health Study, the recent spike was a timely reminder that Covid has not gone away and that we still need to be vigilant as new mutations continue to emerge around the world.

The approval of Moderna’s new Omicron-specific jab is a welcome development for the UK and the shot could end up playing a significant role in any further vaccine drives to come.

With that in mind, what follows is an overview of some of the most common symptoms associated with that variant and its offspring for the fully-vaccinated – and two early warning signs that you might have it.

Most common symptoms for the fully vaccinated

Researchers in Norway conducted a study interviewing 111 out of 117 guests to a party on 26 November 2021 where there was an Omicron outbreak.

Of the group interviewed, 66 had definitive cases of Covid and 15 had possible cases of the virus.

Of the 111 participants, 89 per cent had received two doses of an mRNA vaccine and none had received a booster shot.

According to the findings published in the infectious disease and epidemiology journal Eurosurveillance, there were eight key symptoms experienced by the group of fully-vaccinated partygoers.

These were: a persistent cough, runny nose, fatigue, sore throat, headache, muscle pain, fever and sneezing.

An associate practitioner administers a coronavirus vaccine at Elland Road in Leeds

(Danny Lawson/PA)

The study found that coughs, runny noses and fatigue were among the most common symptoms in the vaccinated individuals while sneezing and fever were least common.

Public health experts also added nausea to this list of symptoms in vaccinated people who have contracted the Omicron variant.

Although the vaccine protects against the more serious risks of the virus, it is still possible to contract Covid even if you have both jabs and a booster shot.

The mild nature of the symptoms makes it hard for people to distinguish the virus from a common cold.

But, according to Professor Tim Spector of the Zoe Covid project, around 50 per cent of “‘new colds’ currently are, in fact, Covid”.

Two early warning signs you may have Omicron

Experts also suggest there are two distinct symptoms that could be a sign a positive test is around the corner: fatigue and spells of dizziness or fainting.

More than simply feeling tired, fatigue can translate to bodily pain by causing sore or weak muscles, headaches and even blurry vision and loss of appetite.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, a private practitioner and chair of the South African Medical Association, told Good Morning Britain that fatigue was one of the main symptoms of Omicron when the variant broke out in South Africa.

Commuters with face coverings leave a train

(AFP/Getty)

In fact, 40 per cent of women reported they struggled with fatigue due to Covid compared to one-third of men, according to a poll by WebMD that asked users how often they had suffered fatigue from 23 December 2021 to 4 January 2022.

Dizziness or fainting is the second sign that you may have Omicron.

A report from Germany recently suggested that there could be a link between fainting spells and Omicron after doctors in Berlin found that Covid was triggering recurrent dizzy spells in a 35-year-old patient admitted to hospital.

German newspaper Arztezeitung said that the doctors could see a “clear connection” between the infection and the fainting spells.

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