Sharing some info from my rheumatologist for anyone else who got J&J and is immunosuppressed (TNF inhibitor):
I have been looking into this J&J / mRNA vaccine combination question and asking my colleagues. Here goes:
None of the other rheumatologists have any definitive information was were just curious what I found out and what we decided (not helpful to you).
There is emerging data that the “heterologous” schedule of initial vaccine and booster vaccine (meaning first the J&J and then one of the mRNA vaccines as a booster) is both safe AND may be more effective than just the mRNA initial/booster schedule. This data is NOT in patients on immune suppressing medication, but I feel okay about translating it to your situation. The original data comes from a couple of articles in The Lancet, which is a trusted medical journal in my world. I’ll provide the citations below.
So, for you, I recommend going ahead with the mRNA vaccine for a booster (and you’ll probably get even more benefit having had the J&J vaccine initially). The Pfizer vaccine is the one in these studies, so I’d probably go for that one.
In regards to whether or not to do a booster to your booster shot… I believe it would be safe and get you even more protection, so probably go for it. I don’t think you’d need a 3rd mRNA shot…
I got boostered! Flu shot in the same arm, too. He asked me if I wanted different arms and when I asked him what he recommended, he said if I got soreness then I might as well just have one sore arm. It’s currently feeling a bit tender and I hope it doesn’t get too much worse!
Extremely fascinating interview on The Dose about the patent system and global health inequalities specific to the covid vaccine. Also some talk about boosters.
This answers something I had been wondering:
"To help states and cities prepare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week sent out a seven-page document with guidance on how to set up expanded vaccination programs.
For example, it notes pharmacies in every state can give COVID-19 shots to children, but it clarifies that only doses prepared and packaged specifically for children are to be used for those under 12."
How do you know if same day test sites are legit? I’m looking at sameday-testing.com and covidclinic.org if any has experience with those specifically…
Cross-posted from my journal. Reality check: Am I being precious not wanting to have [library] programming happening around me? They want us to have an indoor storytime starting ASAP. We don’t have to do the storytime; someone from a specialized department is willing to come and do it. We would just have to staff the desks. But I have been getting really anxious when we have big programs (seriously, people are shoulder-to-shoulder in there, WTAF). I don’t know that I want to interact with a bunch of people while my personal children are not yet vaccinated.
But I might just be being overly cautious? How much difference does it really make to my exposure if my kids (who go to a school with good masking where there’s been 1-2 cases all year so far) are vaccinated or not? (I’ve already said I would do programming after they’re vaxxed.) And apparently their risk of serious illness is super duper low.
Storytime children will still be too young to be vaccinated even after my kids are vaxxed. We are not permitted to require masks for programs. Our local caseload is low, although no current stats for my county are available ATM.
Having trouble unwinding the knee-jerk fear from what is really a good precaution. Thoughts welcome.
Boosted! And, knock wood, I don’t feel nearly as bad as I did after the 2nd dose. Arm is extremely painful, I’m tired and moving slowly, that’s about it so far.
I have been functioning well on the understanding that an unvaccinated child has the risk of a vaccinated young adult, and a lower risk than a vaccinated senior.
My kids still wear masks, as do I when I’m with them, but I try really hard not to stress too much.
In reality, the likely largest problem if anyone in my household got covid would be having to work from home and not having access to childcare for the duration of the illness + 2 week quarantine for the healthy after last exposure. (Please universe, don’t make me eat my words on this one…but this is really what statistics tell me.)
That’s not the worst risk for me. I can’t work from home and if I personally got a breakthrough case, I would have to suspend testing and treatment for my hearing loss as well as fertility treatment–possibly forever for the latter. I have also been struggling with my asthma lately.
Not to sound awful or like a terrible parent, but I’m not really worried about THEM personally getting really sick; I am worried about them or the kids at work exposing me!
That said, I am probably just being phobic. I can’t control all these risks forever and the combination of losing my brother last year (not to covid) and being in last-ditch fertility treatments during covid has really thrown off my sense of proportion.
I think everyone has to figure out their own person tolerance of the risks.
But it’s also important to have a realistic view of what the risk is. (I think many studies have shown conservatives underestimate it, but liberals overestimate it.)
Our library is doing storytime, but they require masks.
One of my friends thinks they’ve had an immune response to the Pfizer vaccine that’s still ongoing 3+ weeks later. Has anyone seen information on that?
Information, no. Treated patients with those symptoms from flu and covid vaccines, yes. Friend should check in with a doctor to look at if the shot has triggered an autoimmune condition or if symptoms have another cause.
And then symptomatic treatment and deep rest. So I usually talk about lifestyle homecare and do mld or very gentle massage depending on symptoms. NDs that I work with might do dietary or supplement intervention in addition to lifestyle.
Doctors are usually dismissive or might suggest not getting the flu shot. We usually recommend for future vaccines to pre plan and do the self care, because it seems like people who react like this to flu vaccines also get sick for a year or a season if they get the flu.
I do remember a lot of reports of lingering symptoms in the spring with early vaccines.
I don’t know what resources you can help friend access, but I hope they go ahead with both vaccines and lots of help.
This was after their second vaccine and they’re working with a naturopath, but I thought people here would have good info, and you did. Thank you very much for this!
Random medscape. Always good to keep in mind that the covid vaccine isn’t a question of vaccine versus not, it’s vaccine versus covid (well, and eventually covid exposure while vaccinated versus covid exposure while not vaccinated, most likely). And just reassuring to see that even when there are side effects, they’re lower risk with the vaccine than the virus.
good vaccine news (vaccines not linked to pregnancy loss)
COVID-19 Vaccines Not Linked With Pregnancy Loss
(Reuters) - Two studies in major medical journals add to evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe before and during pregnancy.
One study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, tracked nearly 18,500 pregnant women in Norway, including about 4,500 who had miscarriages. Researchers found no link between COVID-19 vaccines and risk of first-trimester miscarriage, regardless of whether the vaccines were from Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech, or AstraZeneca.
Overall, the women with miscarriages were 9% less likely to have been vaccinated, according to the researchers’ calculations.
In a separate study published in The Lancet, researchers tracked 107 women who became pregnant while participating in trials of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Seventy-two of the women had received the vaccine while the others got a placebo. AstraZeneca’s vaccine had no effect on the odds of safely carrying the pregnancy to term, the researchers reported.
“It is important that pregnant women are vaccinated since they have a higher risk of hospitalizations and COVID-19-complications, and their infants are at higher risk of being born too early,” the authors of the Norwegian study wrote.
“Also, vaccination during pregnancy is likely to provide protection to the newborn infant against COVID-19 infection in the first months after birth.”
Fuck you very much, New Orleans, for dropping the mask mandate a week before we go there.
I mean, Chicago will likely do the same soon. So it shouldn’t matter. I am just getting tired of “numbers are down, so fling wide the gates!” That seems to always result in another wave.
