As mentioned in the video, the current vaccine is not a great fit to the H3N2 strain that is predominate, but it will lessen the risk of a severe infection, complications, and hospitalization.
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Well, even before the pandemic, I had gotten the pneumonia vaccination and annual influenza (often); since the pandemic, I got the second of the pneumonia vaccinations and always get CoViD updates, influenza. Last year I got the RSV(?) vaccine, and I need the MMR again due to when I got my original vaccinations...
@SomeMichGuy I don’t know if you have gotten the shingles vaccine yet, but the two dose ShingRix vaccine is > 90% effective and can prevent some serious discomfort & misery…
@KunsanVeteran I got that as soon as I could. Shingles / reactivation of the Varicella Zoster Virus / HHV-3 is really something to avoid, if at all possible.
@KunsanVeteran FYI When I was in California--long before the shingles vaccine--the elderly mother of an older friend got shingles, and it was in a bad place, clothes-wise, and showed me
• how doctors typically UNDERestimated the length of time of a particular outbreak,
• how incredibly uncomfortable it can be,
• how incredibly disruptive is can be.
Besides that, the infected person having NO control over the where and when means you are always at risk for having it in TRULY awful places.
@SomeMichGuy I will share an experience from my immediate family that happened years before the ShingRix vaccine was available.
My wife called me at work and told me that the skin on an area of her back was intensely burning and itching. After asking her a few questions, it was obvious to me that it was conforming to a dermatome pattern typical of shingles. I told her to call the medicine clinic for a same day appointment and be seen.
If properly treated early (before vesicles or blisters form) with antiviral medications and steroids the duration and severity can be shortened and lessened.
By the time I got home, I found out that whoever saw her had misdiagnosed it as just a nonspecific rash.
I accompanied her the next morning to the clinic but by then she had broken out in vesicles. They started her on the appropriate treatment that day, but she suffered for a long time and the skin on her back was permanently scarred.
Toward the end of my career the new vaccine came out. I got the first shot without difficulty but had a very hard time getting the second shot because the supply would run out almost immediately. Finally, just before I had my final out, I got the second shot. The immunization nurse called me as soon as a supply came in.
Sorry that your wife's experience goes in the "cautionary tale" bin.
That's exactly why I say that being a GP / family doctor / first-line medical professional REQUIRES vigilant practice of scientific skepticism--doubting that one's own diagnosis is correct by ALWAYS asking oneself, "What does NOT fit?" and thinking about the goodness-of-fit of ALTERNATIVE diagnoses.
Being awake for the 20% of non-routine cases--and especially the few percent within THAT group which are the true tests of the diagnostician--is the trial which every first-line medical person has to face with sober attention to and thoughtful consideration of all reasonable alternative diagnoses.
