Should I get the Covid Vaccine?

I was in the ICU with COVID back in December 2020 through January 2021. My recommendation is to get the vaccine. The vaccine will prevent hospitalization and even death. A temporary spike in blood sugar won’t be a problem. Keep taking your insulin and other medication regularly. remember, you are diabetic and at very high risk of complications from COVID. Get the vaccine. I’m getting mine today. I lied and said I am type 2. Yeah, I’m a rascal, but one COVID ICU experience was one time too many for my liking.

Pretty sure they allow type1 diabetics now. And over 50.
Even kids over 16 are eligible on April 15 in California.
So it’s pretty much open to everyone now.
I got my first one 2 weeks ago, they never asked for any proof or anything. It seems the only cared in the early stages.
So you really don’t need to lie about it anymore if you want one.

I had the first dose two weeks ago and my reaction was the exact opposite of what you suggest. For the first 24 hours especially and even for the next 2 or 3 days, I had problems with LOW blood sugars. I found I had to be VERY careful and take significantly less insulin over that period. At least I will be prepared if this happens again with the second dose.

I got my vaccine yesterday. When I made the appointment on the MyTurn scheduling system it lists only Type 2 diabetes as high risk along with other diseases. If you answer “No” to the question asking if you have any of these illnesses you will not be allowed to schedule an appointment. Hence, I just answered “Yes” to get through the system. Type 1 is still not listed.

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The least surprising thing to me of this entire covid pandemic is that the software continues to suck. :confounded:

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Hmm … MyTurn? You must be a CA resident?

Given that the CDC just added T1 as “high risk” as opposed to “maybe higher risk”, I think you did the right thing and simply on a case-by-case basis “fixed a bug” in their scheduling system.

Compared to some of the other real line-jumpers in CA:

  1. The twenty-somethings that figured out that answering “other” on the health questions allowed them to make appointments immediately.

  2. The white kids who overwhelmed the sites in minority communities to get early access to vaccines … despite the fact that they would NEVER venture into those communities for any other reason.

  3. The gym employees and marijuana dispensary employees who self-defined themselves as “front-line healthcare workers” to jump to the front of the line.

  4. Companies like Grub Hub (based in Santa Clara county) that invited all of their twenty-something, part-time delivery drivers that live and work in other counties to flood the Santa Clara mass vaccination site at Levi’s Stadium … blocking legitimately qualified county residents from getting vaccinated.

There is a new story every day.

For the record, because I am old (71) when CA was vaccinating 65+, with no mention that I was T1D, I was thrilled to get Moderna vaccines in CA on 2/14 and 3/14 at a CVS. I did experience post-vaccination high BS … but that was because I treated myself to a fine-dining (AKA high-fat) dining experience immediately after in celebration of getting vaccinated.

I’m glad you got your first dose!!!

Stay safe!

John

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I got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. One shot deal. My blood sugar was running lower than usual today at 68. And, yes I am in California. You can check the MyTurn site yourself. Type 1 is not listed as priority. Yet, Type 1 diabetes is listed as high risk of COVID complications in the UK and Europe. I guess the CDC wanted to be different. Thank you for the kind words. I am full on happy I got the vaccine. I was in the ICU back in December with an extreme case of COVID. I have LADA (basically Type 1 diabetes) and it was a scary experience. COVID pushed me into ketoacidosis. No symptoms. I don’t want that again.

and the fact that California officials have made an effort to be different from everyone else. Here is one surprising fact that I learned while in the ICU. Apparently, how they treat COVID patients is very political. I asked about remdesivir and plasma, which they never gave me. I was told by a nurse that the doctors at the hospital I was at were hardcore anti-Trump. So, they refused to give patients remdesivir and plasma because my understanding was that Trump was touting it. A friend of mine who was treated in Pasadena got both remdesivir and plasma and her recovery time was cut in half. My recovery time was slow, drawn out and grueling. The doctors could have spared me that by giving me those medications. But, I learned this was/is very political.

The hospital staff is not going to make medical decisions based on their politics.
Remsedivir is a drug that has never been released by the fda.
It was approved for emergency use in people who have no other hope.
No idea why they gave it to Trump, but presidents can get a lot of things average people can’t get.
I’ve known a lot of doctors , most are conservative. None would withhold medication based on politics.
I think it’s a silly assertion.

There were initially hopes that COVID-19 convalescent plasma would be useful treatment. However, the outcome of the trials did not back that up.

Not my assertion. just sharing what I was told by a nurse. I know people who were not even in the ICU that got plasma and remdesivir. Remdesivir is FDA approved. “On October 22, 2020, FDA approved Veklury (remdesivir) for use in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kg) for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.” I was in the ICU and never was given Remdesivir or plasma. I know people who received both and their recovery time was shortened. My partial recovery time was over two months. And, yes doctors do base their treatment on politics and their ideologies. I had a muslim neighbor who was told by his doctor “too bad” when he told him he thought he had covid and wanted to get tested. The guy went outside his insurance and paid out of pocket for a test and found out he was positive. He got a new doctor and was monitored properly.

How do you know their recovery time was shortened. Were you able to somehow have them be given and also not given these treatments so their recovery times with and without the treatment could be compared? :upside_down_face:

Once you get the vaccine, there would be covid antibodies in your system. So if you go for a covid test, would it come up as positive (not from you getting covid but from the vaccine?)

That’s just gossip.

Honestly, doctors can make bad decisions, and I’m sure some might be driven by politics, but hydroxy (Hydroxyquinoline) was really the Trump drug, and that was shown to be useless, and even harmful. Even then, many doctors prescribed it for friends and family, or more correctly, wrote many prescriptions for it, hoarding it.

I had read promising initial reports of plasma, but for the most part, those did not pan out. Remdesivir, on the other hand, had some initial promising results in reducing death and/or decreasing recovery time.

Trump might have mentioned plasma and Remdesivir in passing, but few medical people would have discounted them simply because Trump said it, since those were treatments that were being studied and had some viable reasoning behind them. Trump was implicated in about 40% of virus misinformation, so discounting Trump was actually a good strategy, at least if being smart about treatment was a concern. Personally, being the science and study-focused person that I am, I always discounted Trump.

On the other hand, examining what Trump was treated with was a good indication of what doctors believed might work, with Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody cocktail and Dexamethasone being the most interesting, and it did include Remdesivir.

8 drugs Trump has been given for his COVID-19 treatment (beckershospitalreview.com)

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No they are 2 different things. A covid test is a nasal swab that looks for covid virus… a blood test will show antibodies, which are your own cells that are targeted to fight covid.

There is no viral test for your blood. There would never be enough to test it even if you were sick.

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Which to get first flu vaccine or covid? Has anyone gotten both yet and in which order?

Where we live the flu season runs from fall to April. We got our flu shots last October because the flu shot lasts about six months. We got the Covid vaccine when it became available to us in February for our first vaccine.

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@tedos

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, this has not been an issue as most of us got flu shots last Oct and Nov before ANY Covid vaccine was available.

However, they do ask that you have not had any other vaccine in the 14 days prior to receiving a Covid vaccine in the US.

I personally would prioritize the Covid vaccine. If I could get it now I would start it first. If I thought it would be at least 2 weeks before I could get/start Covid vaccination, I would likely get a flu shot now to get it out of the way and get flu protection started.

Disclaimer: I don’t have any medical training or special knowledge about vaccines … I’m just a typical “man on the street”.

Stay safe! Did I see that NZ and AUS have just opened the no-quarantine travel bubble? Congratulations to you both for your superior Covid efforts!

John

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I think this is good advice. I got my Northern Hemisphere flu shot last fall and then watched the incidence of flu fall off a cliff – hardly even enough to measure! I would still get the flu jab, though, according to John’s thinking above.

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I was going to skip the flu shot this year, since I am so seldom around people and will continue to be very careful even though fully vaccinated for Covid. I will continue to be masked except around my son who I plan on hugging after he is fully vaccinated.

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