Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: August 28, 2021 04:51PM
Oh, Dorothy, I'm so sorry. Glad to hear the symptoms have been mild other than the neuro, it sounds like?
For those who think a fully vaccinated person contracting the virus is proof the vaccine doesn't work (unfortunately, many have this opinion, despite no training in medicine or bio sciences) it's exactly the opposite. It is well known and publicized and explained that even those who have been vaccinated can still get sick from COVID-19 (that's how virulent it is) but that most of them will have a milder disease course than they might have otherwise. The stats, at least here in Canada, are clearly showing that the overwhelming majority of deaths from COVID are occurring in unvaccinated people.
One of the foremost goals, as has been stated here often, was always, from the beginning, to avoid overwhelming ERs and ICUs with COVID-19 patients, who need critical care and so much of it, such that every other person needing even urgent care can't access it.
Another goal was to minimize the effects of the virus in those who contract it, which indeed is occurring as most vaccinated people who get CV report only mild illness.
Also part of the plan from the get-go was to protect medical staff.
These goals are being met better than if the virus had been rampaging the earth attacking an entirely unvaccinated world population.
As for your mention of loosey-goosey masking, Dorothy, yes, I notice that too. People push their mask down off their noses and wander around thinking they're safe and keeping others safe too. Or wear the little thin paper ones that gape at the top and sides - it's not really doing the job of sealing in your breath and sealing out others'. As for hand sanitation, it seems 110% of people have forgotten the early instruction to avoid touching the front of your mask. This is hard to do if you keep pulling it down and pushing it up and adjusting it from the front. I see many who take it off from the front (thereby contaminating their hands with any virus particles that may be on it), stuff it in their pocket, and then fish it out to put it on sometime later, again touching the front of it (which should always be considered to be contaminated) in order to adjust it on their face.
That is why your hands too should be regularly washed/sanitized because they have to be considered contaminated and why MDs often remind us not to touch our faces and especially our eyes/nose/mouth as they are portals of entry for any germs going.
I well realize that Dorothy knows all this. I'm just summarizing it again to hopefully forestall those who think Dorothy contracting the virus after being vaccinated is a reason to denounce the vaccines. Rather, it's a reminder that it's the vaccine PLUS the oft-repeated other precautions (correct mask-wearing and regular handwashing) that are the ways in which we can try to avoid contracting COVID. And the operative word is 'try'. I have never heard an expert in science, medicine or virology and other associated specialties claim that these measures are foolproof. It helps to keep in mind what the objectives are (avoiding overwhelming critical care spaces, minimizing the numbers of people who contract the virus, decreasing numbers of infections or minimizing its effects if it occurs). Nobody ever said the vaccines are a panacea or that the masks are the be-all/end-all. Just tools to try and meet the objectives I mentioned, and other related ones.
Too, as Dorothy said, she's in a high-risk category, not only being a nurse but a school nurse, kind of a double-whammy, as that is a much higher risk vocation and environment.
I hope for a speedy, uneventful recovery for you, Dorothy, with no lasting sequelae. Please keep checking in with us as we'll be thinking of you.