[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Akshay6988

I'm reiterating that I'm all in for vaccination, just not ready to take it yet. Hope no one judges me for the same, I just felt there are many like me, so I thought I would share my two cents.

There are indeed many like you. It is hard to say that a person does not have the right to feel and act this way, but each person who does so is, to use the old saying, part of the problem, not part of the solution. We take the vaccine hoping for personal protection, but each person who takes it contributes to the society (now called herd) immunity, a certain percentage of which is necessary to stop the virus spreading. Those who do not take it (unless immune by some other method) contribute to the pool of people who might catch/spread the sickness.

The personal is imoprtant for each of us: the not-personal is important for everyone.

Originally Posted by yosbert

I know of at least 4-5 people in my father's circle who have contacted the disease after getting vaccinated (mostly after first dose). So it is very hard for me to believe the data that government has released yesterday.
However this is no way to imply that the vaccines are ineffective. On the contrary I believe that the vaccines are doing their job since in none of the cases there were any complications beyond the initial mild symptoms. And mind you these were all cases in 70+ aged senior citizens. So I believe the vaccines are doing their intended job which is to protect against serious complications of the disease requiring hospitalization. The vaccines were never meant to prevent contacting the disease 100%.

So, as advertised then. I don't know, but I'm sure every research project tries for 100% protection: the reality then becomes the score of the phase III trials and the following rest-of-the-world experience.

I hope, mainly, that they do not do us any harm. Over and above that, I am only thinking that what we have now is the best that is available: we may very well need more/better/different in the future.

[krishnakarthik1]

Faheem Younus is not Indian, does not belong to any political party here, is not bribed by our vaccine makers, has not hoarded remdesivir nor has he tried to stop Oxygen tankers. His mission for the past year and half has been to treat and educate. This is what he has to say. Vaccination is the only way out, nothing else. If someone does not want to get vaccinated please keep your views to yourself. Even Dolo 650 can have side effects.

Today morning our company has notified all employees that we will be bearing the cost of their vaccination. May 10 is the cut of date for everyone to get vaccinated or they will have to take a leave of absence. 99% of 45 plus employees have been vaccinated and they are just fine.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by krishnakarthik1

Today morning our company has notified all employees that we will be bearing the cost of their vaccination. May 10 is the cut of date for everyone to get vaccinated or they will have to take a leave of absence.

I'm a firm believer in the science and probability numbers of vaccination effectiveness and personally I intend to get the covid vaccine shot as soon as possible. And it's certainly awesome that a company is covering the cost of vaccination, but how can they mandate vaccinations and that too by a certain date?! That's ridiculous.

What does that mean, take the first dose by May 10th and then come in to work? What about the second dose? Or is this just an incentive to ensure that everyone gets vaccinated? What about employees who have certain medical conditions that the vaccine manufacturers themselves say excludes them from taking the vaccine? Then they have to justify that to the company as well? Please correct me if I have misunderstood, but IMHO this is a company meddling too much in their employees' lives! Intent may be good, but this is not for any private company to set such mandates this early.

Have any other companies started making their own rules like this? Anyone else heard of something like this? I know some companies have started arranging vaccinations at their sites, but those have been voluntary and people have to sign up.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by krishnakarthik1

Today morning our company has notified all employees that we will be bearing the cost of their vaccination. May 10 is the cut of date for everyone to get vaccinated or they will have to take a leave of absence.

A good move to push employees for vaccination.

But Your firm's management have seemingly made some over-the-top optimistic assumptions. Most health officials / reports have already indicated that there would be no significant change in the production of vaccines so the pace of vaccination would not change drastically in the next month or so. Without even considering the operational issues that each state is going to face initially, it's Pretty optimistic to expect even half of the firm's employees to be given the first dose in the first 10 days.

[krishnakarthik1]

Originally Posted by am1m

Or is this just an incentive to ensure that everyone gets vaccinated?

More of an incentive and trying to push as much as we can. When there are deadlines and targets a sense of urgency comes up and people tend to speed up. If someone has health issues it obvious that they won't be dragged and vaccinated.

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

It's Pretty optimistic to expect even half of the firm's employees to be given the first dose in the first 10 days.

Totally agreed. We are speaking to hospitals nearby who can accommodate our employees once it opens up. Our social media marketing team will register each of our employee on the cowin website so that they get their own reference numbers for their second doses.

Nothing Draconian here, we are just trying to help and feciliate and our staff understand that. At the end of the day if they get vaccinated I don't get the anti bodies.

[amol4184]

So here is my experience, or rather my father's :

Took first dose on 5th March, got second dose exactly a month after.

Within two days he started showing symptoms: fever, body pain, tiredness but thankfully no cough.

His fever vanished after paracetamol treatment and was feeling good.

However around 9th April he lost his appetite, fever returned and just started feeling uneasy.
We did CT scan and his CT score came as 14/25. All the doctors whom we consulted, asked us to admit him.

After a lot of frustration and scare, we finally found a bed for him in one hospital on 11th April.

His O2 saturation all this while was pretty good : 97-98.
The saturation started going down on 17th and he was put on oxygen.

He is still in hospital and his O2 levels dip as low as 70 when his oxygen mask is removed.

We couldn't find all necessary doses of Remdisivir (not sure if it's really useful) and his last dose is still pending. The doctors are saying he's improving and his next CT scan is scheduled tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.
--

This wasn't to deter anyone from taking vaccine. You should absolutely get vaxxed. The vaccine takes time to work and unfortunately in my dad's case he was infected immediately afterwards.

We rest all are going to take vaccine as soon as it opens up for 18+ people.

[Sebring]

I asked my friend who is Ex-VP Astra Zeneca (Now retired) as to 'how vaccinated people are getting Covid?' He said there is a high chance they walked in for their shots with the Covid infection already present in their bodies. There should have been proper checks at that point but where is the time? Maybe asymptomatic cases. These vaccines do work. Have no doubt. It's our only line of defence. Maybe you will be required to take a third shot, or maybe it could turn out to be an annual affair. You never know. Please do get vaccinated with full faith in mankind. Its not that hopeless yet

[pandey.jai]

My parents had their second vaccination scheduled at one of the Apollo hospitals and now that got canceled. They got Covishield the first time around. Now they’ve had to get an appointment at another hospital.

My question is if this second hospital administers covaxin, can they take it safely?

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

My question is if this second hospital administers covaxin, can they take it safely?

Nope, I don’t think these are interchangeable and no hospital will administer different type. Try to find another hospital in your locality or wait for new appointment at existing. From what I understand, second dose is booster and a little more gap is not going to be a problem

[jpcoolguy]

Originally Posted by srini1785

Registrations for 18 and above open from Saturday in cowin site

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/coro...-ndtv_bigstory

My expectation is that the site would crash within the next few minutes but i would try anyway.

Nope, the actual registration start date is 28-Apr-2021, not 24th. Also, there are no walk-ins allowed for this age group, this may have been done to reduce the initial rush.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india...080680724.html

[Osteon206]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

My parents had their second vaccination scheduled at one of the Apollo hospitals and now that got canceled. They got Covishield the first time around. Now they’ve had to get an appointment at another hospital.

My question is if this second hospital administers covaxin, can they take it safely?

It's better for them to take covishield itself. All the statistics that we have are for the individual vaccine, none of the statistics are for a combination of these for the first and second dose. So IMHO it's better they take covishield itself. Moreover in their profile covishield will be mentioned against the dose received.

[Osteon206]

Originally Posted by Osteon206

I wanted to share some useful information regarding COVID treatment apart from the supportive medications and oxygen.
Moderators, kindly merge this to the appropriate thread.

I would like to emphasize the need of patient positioning to improve ventilation to all areas of the lung to aid in better oxygenation during the period of home quarantine. For the oxygen saturation to improve, at first oxygen should be able to reach all the areas of the lung. The same will be advised at the hospital also for patients who are not intubated.
This is done primarily by a few methods which I have described below.
CONSCIOUS PRONING
This involves positioning by the patient as illustrated in the picture below. The patient is required to lie down on the stomach for 1 hour, then for 30 minutes on tej right side side followed by 30 minutes of sitting with the back at an angle of 30°-60° for 30 minutes, then lying on the left side for 30minutes and finally lying on the stomach again for 30 minutes. All this while it is necessary to remain awake. This entire procedure takes about 3 hours for each cycle. This must be done a minimum of twice a day. The patients can keep themselves occupied with either work or entertainment in order to not doze off.
Attachment 2147291
Incentive spirometry
This is another method to improve ventilation. It's essentially a breathing exercise to increase the forc d inspiratory lung volume. This must be done for about 10 minutes once every 2 hours. Sharing a picture of how the device looks and a video about how to use it (Youtube video by Science sir).
Attachment 2147292
https://Youtu.be/SWQA93wdT-k
Apart from this you could do Pranayama too.
Conscious proning can be done by members living in the same household too even though you are asymptomatic or not tested because literature and experts suggest that the infectivity rate of the double strain is much higher in the household compared to last year. I personally experienced this - last year when I was positive, my wife didn't contract it. But now despite following strict guidelines a friend after turning positive was isolated and his family followed all the precautions but still contracted COVID though he was asymptomatic.
Another thing I would suggest if you have a pulse oximeter or a smart watch that records saturation is to not monitor saturation continuously. Monitor twice or thrice a day, otherwise there will be unnecessary excessive anxiety. You can follow the mentioned steps. Monitor once in the morning, then you can do some brusque walking within your isolation room for about 5 minutes and then record the saturation again - a drop of more than 5% compared to pre-exercise level is significant.
Another recommendation is for smokers to cut down or considering quitting since the already compromised lungs will not handle the viral insult as well as a healthy lung.

All the above suggestions are based on literature, expert advice, my experiences as a doctor and as a patient.
If anyone has any doubt please feel free to DM me. I don't take consultation fee for treating COVID from anybody. I am primarily an Orthopedic surgeon but have been treating many friends, family members and friends of friends since a year now in the prehospitalisation stage. I was also a volunteer in a two week fever clinic initiative taken up by Mysore city corporation last year. So please let me know if you have any queries, always happy to help.

Kindly note the following conditions in which proning should not be done
1. Pregnancy
2. Deep Vein Thrombosis
3. Major cardiac conditions
4. Unstable spine, pelvic and femur fractures.

[rajesh1868]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

My parents had their second vaccination scheduled at one of the Apollo hospitals and now that got canceled. They got Covishield the first time around. Now they’ve had to get an appointment at another hospital.

My question is if this second hospital administers covaxin, can they take it safely?

No, they cannot. You need to get the same one. Both are entirely different in the way it behaves and is made.
You can take a look at the basic differences - https://pharmeasy.in/blog/covaxin-vs...ed-comparison/

[Sandy Damodaran]

Originally Posted by pandey.jai

My parents had their second vaccination scheduled at one of the Apollo hospitals and now that got canceled. They got Covishield the first time around. Now they’ve had to get an appointment at another hospital.

My question is if this second hospital administers covaxin, can they take it safely?

Don't worry about it. If the first certificate of your parents mention Covidshield, when you schedule the second dose, only the hospitals administering CS will show up. So you can't by mistake schedule it in a place where Covaxin is being administered.

P.S: My father in law was given Covidshield, but the certificate erroneously mentioned Covaxin and place administered on as Delhi (we are in Kerala) please ensure the certificate mentions the correct first vaccine administered.

[SS80]

I am in a dilemma and not sure how to proceed. My father is 72 and a high BP patient. All the nearest vaccination centers are so crowded, I think it kills the whole intention of getting vaccinated. No social distancing and people randomly coughing and masks below nose is a common site.

I am hesitant to take my father to the vaccination center, purely out of fear that the chances of getting infected are higher at these places than others. Also does this vaccination have any side in effects on BP patients and aged people specifically?