My Mom just turned 91 and is a resident in a nursing home. Her laundry list of medical issues are being maintained by medication. She is bed ridden because she has severe arthritis in her back causing her constant pain. She’s being given medication to help keep the pain under control without having her completely out of it. Yesterday her social worker called me to tell me that in 2 weeks the staff and patients were going to begin getting the COVID vaccine. She wanted to know if I wanted my Mom to get the vaccine. Given my Mom’s age and she’s not in the best of health and she is now recently having anxiety attacks and had to be put on Xanax I’m honestly not sure what to do. Would it do more harm them good? Can someone please help me with this decision or give me advice? I’d appreciate any advice or knowledge. Thank you.
Trust me. My husband is an epidemiologist who has worked in public health his whole career. My son is a physician in a large metropolitan hospital. You do not want to see what he has seen. He would get that vaccine in his eye if he could. The heartache of these dedicated and exhausted healthcare workers is overwhelming. Just vaccinating the nursing home workers is NOT enough. Every resident and visitor needs to be vaccinated. As a 2-time cancer survivor, I would get vaccinated tomorrow if it was available to me. Science is science. Trust it. All of you who are clapping and praising the front line Healthcare workers, then refusing to get your elderly loved one or yourself vaccinated, are just basically saying to them "FU". Again, sorry to be blunt, but this is a PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS. My physician son goes home at night and cries when he has to tell family members there just isn't anymore that could have been done. The anguish is daunting. Nurses holding up phones or tablets to their unconscious patients on ventilators so their family can say goodbye is agonizing. For all that is holy, get your loved one the vaccine.
Stop with the "mainstream media" crap. Stop getting your "news" from social media. If your not watching "main" stream media, what media are you watching? "Extreme" stream media? 300,000 Americans will have died this year of COVID-related symptoms alone. How many could have been saved by just wearing a simple mask? This isn't politics; it's science, plain and simple.
Yes, it is a health situation! It’s called a PANDEMIC!
It has NEVER been about RELIGION or POLITICS!
I really can't see the downside of her having the COVID vaccine. There don't seem to be many side effects reported thus far.
I have done research on this vaccine and so far I don't like what I'm reading. The last place I believe is the media because they are only going to say positive things about it.
Just my thoughts at this time,
Jenna
I feel exactly like you do. I'm very concerned if the facility she resides in, will "force" her to get it in order to remain living there and I wonder if they will even ask for my consent before giving it.
My dilemma is my mom has already had COVID in April and survived. I'm still unclear as to whether she can actually get it again. I would be really upset if the vaccine ended up causing her any harmful side effects after we've fought so hard to get her this far - she is being released from hospice services Friday because she is doing better and Medicare will no longer cover it.
And I don't trust the mainstream media either. Nowadays, because they are in such fierce competition with one another, they say whatever they hear and put it out there so they can be the "first" to report it whether it's accurate or not. It's embarrassing whenever they have to correct something they said was factual and then it turns out not to be.
As to the safety of the vaccine I was talking to a woman who worked for Pfizer for many years. She said the drug companies have been working on developing vaccines for Covid viruses for decades. Although this strain is new, the science is not.
I want my life back, I want to hug people again and see faces, I want the economy to get going, I want people to have jobs and stop from being hungry or evicted. We need to be on board like people were during WW2 doing their part for the country.
i say let her have the vaccine so that others in the facility are protected too. Think of the NH workers...what if they decided they weren’t going to get it? Would that be fair to the residents?
I think Seniors, especially being on all kinds of meds should not take the vaccine.
I think their chances of a reaction will be higher.
Plus if all the staff are taking it then that should deffiently cut down on them transmitting covid to the patients
There were no participants over the age of 75 in any of Pfizer's trials, so there's absolutely no data on how well the extremely elderly can tolerate the vaccine. I guess we just have to hope for the best.
Side effects from the vaccine are far less disturbing than being the patient who suffers terribly with COVID.
Sure, it’s true that some people don’t suffer much. Many do suffer horribly. Do you really want to take that chance? I wouldn’t.
Speak to the doctor or nurse and they will explain just exactly how the vaccine works. They will answer any of your questions.