The saddest thing about vaccine deniers isn’t their misplaced sense of righteousness.
Or the way that some spread misinformation with breathtaking confidence, inserting theories about “the jab” into the comments section of even unrelated health stories.
No. The saddest thing about anti-vaxxers is what happens to those who end up seriously ill in hospital, because the events that follow are simply heartbreaking.
For the patient, it’s scary – “I’ll have the vaccine now” kind of scary, which is something we heard during the worst of the Covid pandemic. And for family members, watching a loved one slowly die is horribly confronting.
It’s something nurses across Melbourne have been reminded of recently as Covid cases and hospital admissions creep up again.
Last week, the Department of Health issued an alert about a spike in cases and advised people to stay up to date with vaccinations and take precautions to protect themselves and loved ones during the holiday period.
The department reports there were 1597 laboratory-confirmed Covid cases in the week up to November 27 and the number of people in hospital is now at a seven-day average of 197. This represents a 63 per cent increase in notified cases over the previous month.
But health alerts and sensible advice on how to stay safe continue to elicit a predictable stream of inaccurate commentary.
For me, the saddest part of the pandemic has been looking after critical patients in ICU who believed the misinformation over the advice of experts.
I couldn’t count the number of people I’ve watched die from Covid, and there are faces and events burned into my memory.
Like the time I was the nurse giving the medication to sedate a distressed patient so they could be intubated and ventilated, only for that to be the last time they were ever conscious.
Or patients saying they don’t want to die and do we promise they’ll wake up again. Or family members who didn’t believe in Covid or vaccinations, getting angry and lashing out when faced with a different reality.
When you’re looking after unvaccinated patients and their families, you soon realise they’re not bad people. They’ve just fallen prey to the misinformation curse that has grown to become its own kind of pandemic.
And of course, there’s no judgement in ICU. Only compassion and the same life-saving care given to all patients.
We know vaccines are the most effective way to prevent severe Covid infections and stop people from becoming very sick. We’re seen the distinct course of the disease’s progression in those who aren’t vaccinated.
We saw the turning point in the pandemic when vaccine numbers went up and deaths started to go down, leading to a return to normal life.
The World Health Organisation reports that 7.1 million people have died of Covid worldwide, from a total of 777 million reported infections. Shocking statistics about a very real disease that still exists and can be protected against with vaccines.
LATEST HEALTH ADVICE:
- The Victorian Department of Health recommends Covid booster shots for people aged over 75 if they haven’t had one for 6 months.
- Annual boosters are recommended for other groups. Boosters are free for all Victorians from GPs and pharmacies.
- Take a Covid rapid antigen test if you have cold and flu symptoms.
- Stay at home if you are unwell and avoid sensitive settings for seven days.
- Seek medical advice if symptoms worsen and take antivirals if eligible within 5 days of developing symptoms.
- Wear a mask if you have symptoms or need to visit a sensitive setting.
- Open windows and doors to reduces the spread of the virus.
VIRUS AND VACCINE FACTS:
- Infectious diseases in humans are caused by microorganisms.
- There are six main classes of microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, protozoa and algae. Bacterial and viral infections are the most common causes of human infections.
- Viruses are the smallest microorganism. The virus that causes Covid-19 is about 1000 times thinner than a human hair.
- The main difference between bacteria and viruses is that bacteria are free-living cells that can survive outside the body, whereas viruses are non-living molecules that need a host to survive.
- Viruses survive by attaching to and invading cells, replicating within them, and then invading other cells and continuing to replicate.
- Viruses attach to cells using special proteins on their outer surface. Different viruses attach to different types of cell receptors.
- As a virus replicates, it can create errors in the genetic code, which are called mutations. Most mutations are not helpful to the virus, but some can make the virus stronger.
- Some viruses don’t mutate as much as other, therefore once you are vaccinated against it you will have immunity for a long time, such as measles and polio.
- Other viruses, such as Influenza and Covid, mutate more quickly and these are called different variants or strains.
- The World Health Organisation studies the dominant variants of respiratory viruses and vaccines are updated to cover the top variants.
- Viruses that mutate more frequently, or for which immunity wanes over time, require more regular vaccinations, or boosters, to maintain immunity.
- The first Covid-19 vaccines of 2020 were developed using existing vaccine studies. Researchers drew on knowledge from other respiratory viruses – including coronavirus variants SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV – to develop the Covid-19 vaccines.
- Covid-19 is known as SARS-CoV-2. The current dominant variant is JN.1.
SOURCES:
* Victorian Department of Health
* Queensland Health
* World Health Organisation
* Understanding Pathophysiology, by Craft & Gordon
* Critical Care Nursing, by Aitken, Marshall & Chaboyer
