danmdevries wrote:If only there was a simple solution to reduce morbidity and mortality. And if it was made free of charge, bonus!
Vast majority of my covid ICU patients are unvaccinated. The few we've had that were, had several things working against them already like organ transplants, active chemotherapy, and other immunosuppressive situations where a vaccine isn't really gonna do chit for them.
I rarely have to work Covid ICU anymore. But we take the overflow. after they've been in for 2 weeks, no longer infectious so they can be moved down to my unit. Then they linger for a month or two before they finally die. It's the same chit every time. Families blame us for not fixing their person, but there's literally nothing we can do. So many times I hear the same thing too: "he/she would never want to be on life support. But we want to do everything" Umm... Shelia... your boy's been on life support for 40 days now. We can stop, or we can transition to a vent facility (fancy nursing home) until he dies. Nothing's going to change the outcome. They always want to keep going. They trust the system when they're sick, but can't trust it for prevention.
I've had them as young as 17. We don't typically take anyone under 18 but if they're too sick to transfer, sometimes we'll take em. I've lost any bit of compassion. When I'm working my 7 night stretch and I have 5-10 deaths during that week, I have nothing left to give. You want to skip out on a shot that can save your life, or significant morbidity, but then come to us to deal with the chit you know you're up against.
I don't get it.
Danm, let me start by saying thanks to you and all your co-workers for all the work you do to help people (covid and non-covid). When I was PoPo, I had a standing rule to give nurses and EMTs significant slack if I ran into them. They might be the ones saving my life the next day.
You said "If only there was a simple solution to reduce morbidity and mortality." That sounds a lot like a therapuetic or a treatment. I think a lot of people were sold a bill-of-good from Fauci et al. that the vaccine would be 90%+ effective so everyone go get it. Well, that was 'slight untruth #243' in this pandemic. The truth matters, and when people keep feeling like they are getting "spun" by those in authority, the level of confidence in that authority (whether what they are saying that time is correct or incorrect) degrades sharply.
The flat honest truth is that after nearly two years of Covid, I have been lied to or had things misrepresented too many times to really have faith in the government (and their medical apparatus) to tell me what is best in regards to Covid. Having said that, I was an early adopter of the vaccine and a booster because
I determined my family risks on my own and
I decided to get the shots. I am fully in support of people who decide not to get it, understand their hesitation and reluctance and I will forever have lingering fears about the long-term effects of the shots.
There are even healthcare workers refusing to get vaccinated.
If you want to see exhibit "A" in the case against trusting the vaccine, ask yourself why the FDA is trying so hard to drag their feet to release the Pfizer vaccine study info. They are saying it will take 55 years to review and redact the study (350K pages) to cleanse it of proprietary info. I work in document review. This would take 40-50 people a few weeks to complete. There is likely a reason the government does not want us to see the data.