My question is why is there such variation of response? My non medical education leads me to question the experienced difference in the responses reported to this vaccination as compared to the experiences I have had to other vaccinations. Why do seemingly healthy individuals have such extreme responses when others shrug it off as nothing but a little sore arm, a minor inconvenience?
Interesting question and I'm sure some researcher somewhere is asking that question. My crude guess is that while much of what it takes to be human is common across all people, there is enough variation between us due to genetics and environmental exposure to cause the variation. Why do some life-long smokers never have lung cancer and some do? Why are some people allergic to cats and others not? What state of health is the person in when they receive the vaccine?
The news reported leaders appear to be selling the experience as one of no concern. The political leaders say even after receiving the vaccine you still need to be in lock down to protect your neighbors. Dr Fauci now says one mask is not enough you need to wear three.
It appears that very few people experience the kind of reactions that MaineSail's wife had and even fewer have severe enough reactions requiring hospitalizations. As smart as we humans are about some things, as a group we are not very good at assessing risk. A few thousand adverse reactions seems like a lot, however, when compared to the tens of millions of vaccines given, the actual incident rate is pretty trivial, unless of course you happen to one who had an adverse reaction.
Back when I took my neuropsych courses the professor would always start the class with the warning that he was giving us the best information he had at the time, however, the research was moving rapidly and by the end of the semester a lot of the information would be outdated. And that is the case with COVID, while the epidemiologists are very knowledgeable about how viruses and diseases spread, there is much unknown when a new virus shows up. As a result information and recommendations evolve. That is the very nature of science, not everyone understands this and expect definitive answers that remain unchanged from scientists.
Regarding the mask and social distancing requirements continuing after getting the vaccine I think there are a couple of issues, one political and one medical. There seems to be some uncertainty about being able to spread the virus after getting the vaccine. We know the vaccine does a really good job at preventing death and serious illness from COVID, but the jury is still out on whether vaccinated people can spread the virus after being vaccinated. And, while the vaccines are highly effective, they are not 100% effective, thus so long as the virus is highly prevalent, there is a greater risk of contracting the virus and subsequently spreading it.
The political issue is one of enforcement. At this point in time, it is far easy to simply apply rules related to prevention to every one than to try and discriminate between those who have received the vaccine and those who didn't. And who is going to enforce the rules? Do you have to bring your vaccine card with you to the store? Show ID that the card belongs to you? And unlike a Drivers License the vaccine card would be pretty easy to counterfeit. Sometimes we just have to take one for the team, wearing masks and social distancing is what we have to do for the human team now. If we don't reach a sufficiently high number of vaccinated individuals I do believe that selective restrictions will be put in place, for example, some people will be denied employment because the vaccine is required to work in nursing homes, hospitals, etc. or because an employer determines that all employees must be vaccinated. Travel restrictions may be put in place based on vaccinations, those of us of a certain age remember our yellow vaccination cards that went with our passports (I still have mine!).
Schools are still empty or meeting 1 day a week.
Schools are all over the place, some fully remote, some hybrid, some normal. One very under reported issue with schools is the impact of COVID on the adults. The media and politicians are focused on the transmission of the virus in schools and that is an issue in the high schools and old poorly designed and maintained schools. A big issue is staffing. In addition to the usual absences staff have for various reasons, exposure to virus, whether infected or not, and the staff member has to quarantine for 2 weeks. It doesn't take many exposures to make the school short staffed. And staffing is much more than just teachers, there are bus drivers, kitchen workers, custodians, tech support, nurses, aides, clerical staff, and so on. This on top of an ongoing teacher shortage. I was recruited for 2 positions last fall, both of which I turned down.
Are we in a state of mass hysteria? Where is the new normal?
The good and competent political leaders have been trying to prevent mass hysteria. There is a big controversy in NY right now about how the death of nursing patients where initially reported. The number of reported deaths was accurate, however, if a patient moved from a nursing home to a hospital and died there it was counted as a hospital death, if the patient died in the nursing home it was counted as a nursing home death. First there is no incentive for the nursing home to take credit for its patients dying in the hospital, in fact the there is every incentive for the nursing home owners and administrators to keep the in facility death rate low, makes them look better. Second imagine the chaos that would ensue if loved ones panicked about death rates in the homes caring for their parents and family? In the early months of the pandemic in places like NY there was more than enough panic to go around, the leaders did not need to create more.
Normal is always evolving.
www.webmd.com
But if your doctor calls it "idiopathic" anaphylaxis, it means cause for the reaction isn't known.
) If the adverse effects were consistent or with a very narrow range that were of a higher frequency, then the adverse effects in any person would not be idiopathic, as the would be the same across large groups of people.
