As more and more three-staters get one of the two COVID-19 vaccines currently available, doctors are learning more about the side effects that can accompany double-injection treatment. The side effects were strong enough to strike a small number of vaccinated health workers in the days following their shots.
But health officials foresaw this possibility and came up with a plan.
It is generally accepted that the first doses for both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have some tenderness around the injection site, but not much else. However, the second injection of the Moderna vaccine developed a reputation for dealing with a greater amount of COVID-like symptoms – mainly pains, fatigue, chills and fever – for a short time after receiving the shot, while the Pfizer vaccine appears. to be softer.
As previously reported by WCPO, local health officials estimate that 20% of those who received Moderna’s second vaccine reported severe side effects from the second injection than the first.
When Taylor Poore, North Kentucky nurse, received her second dose of Moderna on Monday, she said she could experience the expected increase in symptoms, but it only lasts eight hours.
‘I felt like I might have had a low-grade temp, but nothing, you know, it was not earth-shattering to the point that I felt like I could not work, or, you know, something like that. [I] just felt tired and sore. ‘
She said she would feel normal again the next morning.
But dr. Meghan Markovich said that even a small minority of the vaccines that had to stop their work due to the side effects were enough to st. Elizabeth hospitals – where she has a family practice and helps with the vaccination of the vaccine – falter when employees would receive their shots.
“We did offer different appointment dates for staff so that they would be a little taken aback, knowing that this would possibly happen,” she told WCPO.
In her office, consisting of 20 staff members, Markovich said she had to let one employee come in sick due to the side effects of the vaccine.
“Fortunately, I think, the number that had to stay away from work was pretty low,” she said.
While most vaccines in Southwest Ohio were the Pfizer variety – which apparently has milder side effects than Moderna – there was still a small population of long-term health care workers who called out sick after their second dose, according to Peter Van Runkle , executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association.
“We have not yet heard any feedback from members on really significant reactions,” Van Runkle told WCPO. “What we have heard is mainly, yes, we have turned a few people off, or usually one or two or none.”
Van Runkle said he had seen some national recommendations for healthcare providers to block their vaccinations for staff, but his organization – which represents more than 1,000 care, hospice and long-term care institutions in the state – suggested that centers staff their staff. gain. vaccinated as quickly as possible.
“It was mostly the other way around for long-term care providers, like trying to get people to do it rather than saying, ‘Wait a minute,'” he said.
Van Runkle is concerned that too much hype surrounding the possible side effects of the vaccines could lead to fewer people, including health professionals, choosing to get the vaccine once it is available to them.
Part of the concern among staff and the things that allow them not to participate was around the side effects, ‘he said. “The story you shared from Moderna, that if it spreads, it will cause more concern to people because they are already scared.”