General Wellness

I wake up in the late hours of sleep, as many others often do as well, with thoughts whirling in my head. My kids, practice, patients, life, health, home projects, did I completely close the fridge… This last night it was that I hadn’t actually answered the question I posed in the previous day’s blog (and I was also thinking of a sick patient).

If the vaccine is not as effective against the Omicron variant, why take it? 

To that question, you could also add:

Why take it if you can still get sick and still infect others?

In a nutshell, it’s all about not getting sick, avoiding complications and slowing down this virus allowing our healthcare system to keep up and minimize the disease burden people experience now, and in the future as well as minimize death.

Although in most, this virus and its various permutations cause little to no symptoms, but not in all. Many still get really sick and miss work and school. Some become hospitalized and some die. Some also experience long-term, and for someone, likely permanent disabilities.

If you can avoid it, you do not want to catch this virus.

As far as it’s efficacy is concerned, yes the vaccines are less effective against the Omicron strain but it is still very effective.

• 60-80% effective against contracting covid at all
• 90% effective against hospitalization and even more against death, especially if boosted.
• Very effective against significant symptoms.
• Lowers the duration and degree of contagiousness.

And keep in mind that we are in better shape than those who can only get China’s Sinovac or Russia’s Sputnik vaccines, which are only 30% effective against Omicron.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, all the other variants, against which the vaccines are even more effective, are still present in our communities and the vaccines are even more effective against those.

We are approaching 10 billion vaccine doses worldwide and there is ample safety and efficacy data out there.

So, please get vaccinated. They are effective and safe but they are not perfect so keep doing all those other things we know protect us and everyone else.

Stay safe and be well.

AC

Here is a newsflash (and it was news to me as well): the Omicron variant is not the Delta variant which simply mutated into the Omicron variant. These variants are not necessarily Alpha to Beta to Gamma to Delta to Omicron. When the genetics is carefully assessed, it turns out that Omicron actually evolved from the original Wuhan strain which appeared 2 years ago. As an FYI, today (Friday January 21st), marks exactly 2 years since the first official case of Covid was diagnosed in the US. We later determined, after reviewing stored lab cultures, that the virus actually reached our shores weeks earlier, but we lacked the testing, and information from China, to make that diagnosis.

Although there are outbreaks of  variants in many different places, that does not mean that all the previous forms of this virus have died off. There are plenty of places where people are not vaccinated and even the Wuhan strain is still present in significant amounts. It’s also still circulating in the US.

ANY replication of this virus gives it the opportunity to mutate into a variant of concern. The fewer infections, regardless of which variant it is, the better.

Trying to rationalize how concerned you are about which variant you get or for how long you need to quarantine based on the variant you have is not useful. The CDC quarantine advice is too vague and general. Unless you are an essential worker AND had little to know symptoms all along, the 5 day rule may apply, but you still must wear an N95 for an additional 5 days. But for everyone else, stick to 10 days after symptom onset or a positive test. And do not use the antigen test as a rationalization to get out of quarantine. If you do it a few times, maybe, but there are too many false positive and negative results to be definitive after one test.

This virus is here to stay, in various forms. It’s not the flu virus whose previous versions die off season to season. Again, it’s a novel virus and we continue to learn about how it replicates, mutates and impacts our health. We know a lot but there is a lot more to learn.

Please get vaccinated and boosted and continue to do all the other important mitigating steps.

Wear a proper mask. The best one you can.

Distance and avoid crowds.

Be hygienic, but don’t overdo it.

Get healthy!

Have a great weekend.

Stay safe and be well.

AC