I consulted the infinite wisdom of Dr. Google, and some Covid “long haulers” are definitely reporting alcohol sensitivities, but I’m seeing it mostly as anecdotal reports and nothing overly widespread or included on anything authoritative.
My internet medical degree (not really a thing! ) suggests she should avoid alcohol and consult her physician to make sure they don’t want to check liver or kidney function.
No need to be overly alarmed though. Nothing I read indicated that is what causes it (no one suggested what causes it at all) but some of the long haulers do have long term organ damage, so something to at least consider. Hopefully it’s just a temporary gastro intolerance.
She has been avoiding alcohol. I don’t know why she decided to try it again at AK of all places. And her liver functions have been checked. They were way out of whack (as were thyroid), but that seems to have resolved. It is crazy how this virus (and scary if you’ve had it) affects your body in unexpected ways.
I can tell you from experience that people in the same household don’t always contract it.
In early 2020, right at the beginning of Covid, my DS got Flu A and Flu B within 3 weeks of each other. No one else in the house got either one. We are a bigger family and no one took any extraordinary precautions. No one in the family got the flu shot that year.
And he was tested for Covid, and did not have it.
He was sick for days with high fever, chills etc. within a day of receiving the flu vaccine. They were the nasal ones. When he determined the connection he started running around a corner and blowing it out of his nose after getting it. That simple act reduced his symptoms. When they switched to shots he just had to deal with it.
I’m not trying to say you’re wrong about what happened, but I will say that having a sick 4 year old laying on you 24/7 for days (twice!) and not contracting it says a lot!
Same for me. Had Influenza (Positive test) years ago, before our hospital (RN) mandated the vaccine yearly, and it was horrible. Never been so sick, felt awful for a week, maybe longer. It took me 3-4 weeks before I could work a 12 hour shift again. Second time I had it (again, positive test), I had been vaccinated. I still was pretty sick, but only for a short time and I recovered quickly. Huge difference in how I felt.
I am not trying to step on any toes here, but influenza vaccines don’t cause influenza. Like, not possible.
Most likely- you’re experiencing an immune response to the virus which can cause some similar symptoms
Alternatively- you have another virus that cause similar symptoms
Or less often- you were exposed to influenza before getting vaccinated. It takes about 2 weeks for the vaccine to fully work, so you were infected before getting vaccinated or building an adequate immune response.
My toes are ok, it’s always good to learn and understand. Maybe DH’s illness was a coincidence then? It was real. OR maybe it was an experiment… military shenanigans
What you say is what we took away from listening to both the Pfizer and Moderna FDA advisory committee meetings. DH is a statistician retired from GSK. His takeaway from the meetings was that the vaccines were 90 - 95% effective for preventing symptomatic COVID and in the limited clinical trials there was evidence that COVID symptoms were milder in the cases that occurred in the vaccinated populations. Agreed that there’s no info on whether the vaccines diminish asymptomatic spread since they did not test for that.
I just skimmed the details of the Moderna trial and I believe you are correct. Frankly, I’m disappointed.
“More than 96% of participants received both injections, and 2.2% had evidence (serologic, virologic, or both) of SARS-CoV-2 infection at baseline.”
Per WHO:
“‘Serologic testing’ detects antibodies against a virus, measuring the amount of antibodies produced following infection, thereby detecting if a person has previously been infected by SARS-CoV-2.”
So obviously they needed to do the serologic testing at baseline to make sure resistance was from the vaccine and not naturally acquired, but knowing the amount of asymptomatic infections, why would they not do serologic testing throughout the trial to also gather data on asymptomatic cases? Seems very short sighted to have not included that?
Interestingly, I have a friend whose son is in the teen study, and they are checking him for antibodies as they go. Here’s what she messaged me this afternoon when I asked:
“He is monitored for 13 months after. He will be regularly tested for Covid and Covid antibodies and have a total of 6 visits both virtual and in person over the next 13 months. We also have an app where he records data such as how he is feeling and daily temp. If he has a negative response the app alerts the research doctors and we come in for an appointment. They cover all medical costs related to any adverse reactions or consequences related to the vaccine trial and that goes beyond the 13 months.”
They actually happened to be on the news this evening. I didn’t realize she was doing a trial as well! So proud of them both!
Just to clarify why I find this distressing, let’s take it to the extreme. What if the vaccine does nothing to prevent infection, it just converts almost all of the cases to asymptomatic?
It then takes us no closer to herd immunity.
Also, we end up with even more asymptomatic but infected people running around. Who are VERY likely to increase their risk level since they feel they are now protected.
So, yes, great, for those able and willing to take the vaccine, their short term impacts are reduced.
But they may still have long term impacts despite initially being asymptomatic. The jury is still out on how that all works.
And those people that have vulnerabilities and are unable to be vaccinated for some reason are sitting ducks, unable to do anything but hide until naturally acquired herd immunity happens, maybe sometime in 2022? Longer if naturally acquired immunity is short lived?
Those that refuse the vaccine because they were counting on others to take it to reach herd immunity are also sitting ducks, but at least that’s their own choosing. They will continue to perish at the current rate.
Amen to that! Seems very short-sighted to me too— that during the pre-approval clinical trial they only did PCR testing on the trial participants IF they reported symptoms. Routine PCR testing would have given data on both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. The implications for “herd immunity” and understanding if the the vaccines limit both spread of the virus and severity of the disease are huge. I’m guessing that we didn’t know as much (as we do now) about asymptomatic spread when the study protocols were approved? Once the trials started, they don’t want to jeopardize the results by changing the procedures mid-course?
Yes, I also considered that, but it seems like adding a serologic test every two months or whatever would have been worth whatever hoops they’d have needed to jump through? The participants didn’t agree to it up front so it might need to be “requested” depending on what the agreement was, so they might not get full participation, but it seems like really valuable and relatively convenient data was missed.
@Jeff_AZ info seems correct. You want to stick as tightly to the three week schedule as possible, but six weeks is likely ok, we do have data about this based on other vaccines which require two doses. With biological systems there is never a 100% anything, not even that two perfectly timed vaccines will confer immunity. DH (who is in primary care and knows more about this than me} said people must get that second shot, even if they’re immune after one, as it may not last.
But the “should we reserve the second dose” debate appears to have been settled in favor of “No”, which is an excellent move IMHO.
Also, the micromanaging of who’s eligible seems to be fading, as well. Thank goodness.
That is not to say people can’t get a similar virus at the same time- or even the flu, as the shot isn’t immediately effective. But it’s not from the vaccine.
One thing I think many of us have learned is how many unknown ILI (Influenza-like Illnesses) are out there. So many that the CDC has a program to monitor for them, looking for the next pandemic.
…
Here’s an interesting thing I saw while looking at the CDC flu info- the protocols for distributing annual flu vaccine. Why they had to reinvent the wheel for COVID is beyond me. Just leave off the advice for kids, and they work fine:
Well, now the new wheels seem to have come off the cart, I guess it’s time to put the old ones back on it again.
) suggests she should avoid alcohol and consult her physician to make sure they don’t want to check liver or kidney function.
