Coronavirus vaccines work even if you don't have any side effects

Even if you don't get any flu-like symptoms after getting the coronavirus vaccine, you are still protected from the virus, Peter Loftus reports for The Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t think someone should correlate the extent of their reactions to the vaccine with protection from infection,” H. Cody Meissner, chief of the pediatric infectious diseases division at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, told Loftus. “We know that people who don’t respond to a vaccine in terms of the side effects still are well protected. The vaccines work even if you don’t have fatigue and headache and fever and muscle pain and joint pain.”

At the same time, other experts told Loftus that more research is needed about the side effects of vaccines.

One such study at the University of Pennsylvania found that people who had greater side effects after receiving either the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine had slightly higher antibody levels. However, all people in the study who got the vaccine had a good immune response, co-author E. John Wherry, director of the Penn Institute for Immunology, told Loftus. 

Loftus reports: "A Pfizer spokeswoman said the side effects don’t indicate the level of immunity conferred by its vaccine. It wouldn’t be able to demonstrate such high efficacy, if the only people protected were the ones with symptoms, she said." 

The Cleveland Clinic also offers a short question and answer on this topic, saying that the statistics from the Pfizer and Moderna trials show that a little over half of vaccinated people had no side effects, but were still 94% protected, "so you don't need to worry if you don't have any symptoms after your Covid-19 vaccinations." 

Loftus talked to experts about why people's immune systems react in different ways to a vaccine. They noted that general health, age, gender, and heredity all play a role in how one reacts. He reports that side effects are generally more pronounced after the second dose of two-dose coronavirus vaccines, and people who have had the virus have had more pronounced side effects after the first dose. 

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KET show pays tribute to Kentucky's health-care workers, noting some who have died from the pandemic, including eight nurses

Nurses killed by Covid-19 and recognized on "Kentucky Health" were, from top left: Michael Rodriguez, Bonnie Hall, Michelle Wade, Debra Daniels, Connie Luscher, Dana Davis, Susan Whittymore and Sharon Combs.

A Kentucky Educational Television show paid tribute to Kentucky's health-care workers and honored some who have died from the Covid-19 pandemic, including eight nurses. May is Nurses Month. 

Delanor Manson, CEO of the Kentucky Nurses Association, told "Kentucky Health" host Dr. Wayne Tuckson in a show that aired in March about eight Kentucky nurses who have died since July. They were: 

Bonnie Hall, a 61-year-old nurse from Flat Lick in Knox County, who worked at Pineville Community Hospital for 26 years. "She was one of those people who, her whole life, all she ever wanted to be was a nurse," said Manson. 

Dana Davis, 51, who worked at Baptist Health Louisville and was Nurse of the Year in 2018. Manson said Davis was the first Baptist Health employee to die from the coronavirus.

Michael Rodrigues, 67, who cared for Covid-19 patients at Norton Audubon Hospital, had worked there for 26 years. "His death really devastated the hospital and the entire community," Manson said. 

Michelle Wade, 53, who worked for U of L Health-Jewish Hospital. Manson said Wade's son, whom she was very close to, was in school to be a nurse. 

Sharon Combs, a 63-year-old from Tyner in Jackson County, who worked at the Owsley County Health Care Center for 26 years, was known as "Mother of the Facility."  

Connie Luscher, an 87-year-old nurse who spent 33 years at Our Lady of Peace in Louisville, where she became the director of nursing. "She was a nurse's nurse," said Manson, who was a friend of Luscher.

Deborah Daniels, 63, of Ashland, had worked at Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital, which closed about a year ago. Manson said Daniels was also a realtor and owned an antique shop. 

Susan Whittymore, a 61-year-old nurse from London, who worked at Baptist Health.

Manson said the nurses' association has a Nightingale tribute program that honors nurses who have died. She said prior to the pandemic, a representative would attend a nurses' memorial service and read a poem about nurses and present the family with a rose. Since the pandemic, she said they have asked families of nurses who have died to let them know when they plan to have a service so that a nurse honor guard can attend at that time.

The Guardian and Kaiser Health News have published an article, "Lost on the Frontline," that aims to count and honor every U.S. health-care worker who died after contracting the coronavirus on the job in the first year of the pandemic. It says that as of April, Kentucky had lost 52 health-care workers to Covid-19.

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Approval of coronavirus vaccines for children under 12 could take months; no rush needed unless a bad variant arises, experts say

"Experts say it’s a no-brainer for adults and adolescents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. But for younger kids, the case isn’t as clear-cut," reports Alexandra Ellerbeck of The Washington Post.

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 12 to 15, the agency said it could take months to approve a vaccine for younger children. But "Children under 12 are rarely hospitalized with or die of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus — and there’s evidence they don’t spread the virus as easily as adults," Ellerbeck writes, and some experts told her that it’s unclear how big a benefit such vaccinations would be.

“For adults, it’s obviously better that the first exposure is to a vaccine, not natural infection,” said Jennie Lavine, an infectious-disease researcher at Emory University in Atlanta. “Vaccinating children becomes pretty marginal. They’re not getting much of a direct benefit, and it’s not clear that the indirect benefit will be that large.”

Lavine said that could change, though if a new variant of the virus "becomes much more infectious or deadly in children," Ellerbeck writes. "There’s some debate, too, over how often covid-19 infections can cause lingering effects in children." Also, "The vaccines could be particularly life-changing for kids who are high risk or who live with adults who are immunocompromised."

As parents look toward sending their children back to school in the fall, "Many public health experts have heralded vaccines for children as a way to make in-person schooling even safer and alleviate concerns," Ellerbeck reports. "Others worry vaccines could paradoxically have the opposite effect if schools are reluctant to admit unvaccinated students or if parents don’t want to send their children back until they can get a vaccine."

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CDC urges health-care providers to open coronavirus vaccine vials even if doses will go to waste; it's a boon for rural areas

"Now that the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for adolescents, hundreds of thousands of parents likely are searching for a place to get their kids vaccinated. Many are expected to call their pediatricians only to find they don’t have vaccines in stock, partly because doctors have been worried about wasting doses," Christine Vestal reports for Stateline. "But new guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aims to persuade more doctors to stock the vaccine by assuring them that wasting some doses is an acceptable price to pay for inoculating their patients as quickly as possible. The guidance on vaccine waste is a major policy shift for the agency."

The news is good for rural areas, where physicians in small practices may not have enough patients during a day to use up the doses in a vial before its post-opening shelf life expires.

"Most state and local health departments say they’re preparing to shift more vaccines away from large venues such as hospitals and mass vaccination sites, where demand has plummeted, to the pediatricians and other doctors it’s expected many Americans will contact this week to get Covid-19 shots for their teens and preteens," Vestal reports. "But if pediatric practices and other doctor’s offices aren’t already giving their patients shots, it may take some time for them to gear up. . . . That’s why many state and local health agencies are relying on existing vaccine venues such as pharmacies and schools that already are vaccinating older children and adults."

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Ky. has three weeks of declining coronavirus cases and positive-test rates; Beshear implores people under 50 to get vaccinated

Ky. Dept. for Public Health chart, relabeled by Ky. Health News; for a larger version, click on it.

By Melissa Patrick

Kentucky Health News

Gov. Andy Beshear says he is hopeful that three straight weeks of declining coronavirus cases and positive-test rates means the pandemic has moved out of a plateau to a downward trend in Kentucky. 

"We hope that it is a trend, but this may just be part of the plateau," Beshear said at his regular Covid-19 news conference that, in another sign of the fading pandemic, is now being held just once a week.

Beshear is eliminating  capacity limits for most businesses May 28 and will reduce nearly all the state's pandemic restrictions June 11. He reiterated that he is waiting four weeks to allow vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds, who were recently authorized to get a shot, and anyone who is not yet vaccinated. 

"As we return more towards normalcy, it'll be nice to hopefully see these numbers continue to decline," Beshear said. 

Asked about the confusion over the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recent guidance that says anyone who is fully vaccinated doesn't need to wear a mask most of the time, even though some businesses still require it, Beshear said businesses have the choice to require them, and asked patrons to honor those decisions.

"I think we can all figure that out," he said.

One of the best ways to make the pandemic numbers keep going down is for more people get vaccinated, so Beshear implored younger Kentuckians to get a shot, noting that vaccination rates for Kentuckians under 50 are much lower than for those 50 and older. 

He also noted that Kentuckians between 10 to 19 have the highest Covid-19 rate of new cases of any age group in today's report, followed by those 20 to 49, while the state's older groups have lower rates.

"This virus is shifting who is getting infected, because of who is — but more importantly who is not — getting the vaccine," he said, asking a bit later, "So what does that say? It says if you are between 12, when you qualify, and 49, not enough people are getting their vaccines. Please get out there and get it. because people in your age group are getting the virus at a higher rate than other age groups."

Washington Post chart shows Ky. vaccine progress; click it to enlarge.

Beshear said 54 percent of Kentucky adults have received at least one dose of a vaccine. He said 80% of Kentuckians 65 and older have received at least one "shot of hope"; 60% of people 50-64;  45% between the ages of 40-49; 40% of people between 30-39 and 29% of people between 18-29. 

After adding Kentuckians who have been vaccinated in other states and removing out-of-state people from Kentucky's vaccine numbers, Beshear said 1,939,657 Kentuckians have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

The top five counties by percent of residents getting at least one dose of a vaccine are: Woodford (57%), Franklin (56%), Fayette (54%), Scott (48%) and Campbell (47%).The bottom five counties are: Christian (18%), Spencer (18%), Ballard (20%), McCreary (21%) and Lewis (21%).

Since last Thursday, the first day vaccines were given to children 12-15, Beshear said, 6,319 in that age group had received at least one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the only one now approved for the age group.

Nationally, only a few pediatricians have stocked the vaccine, largely out of concern that they will not be able to administer all doses in a vial before they expire. New guidance from the CDC aims to persuade more doctors to stock the vaccine by assuring them that wasting some doses is an acceptable price to pay for inoculating their patients as quickly as possible, Christine Vestal reports for Stateline.

“We recognize that as we continue to create more opportunities to vaccinate more people, it may increase the likelihood of leaving unused doses in a vial,” the CDC said in an advisory memo obtained by Stateline. “While we want to continue to follow best practices to use every dose possible, we do not want that to be at the expense of missing an opportunity to vaccinate every eligible person when they are ready to get vaccinated.”

Daily numbers: The state reported 285 new cases of the virus Monday, raising the seven-day average 17, to 533; it went up by 13 Sunday. Today's average is about the average for the past month (530). 

The rate of new cases over the last seven days declined again, for the 13th consecutive day. It was 8.59 cases per 100,000 residents. Counties with a rate more than double the statewide rate are Webster, 38.6; Rockcastle, 27.4; Adair, 25.3; Estill, 23.3; Lewis, 21.5; Owen, 21.0; Casey, 20.3; Union, 19.9; Montgomery, 19.3; Taylor, 18.8; and Henderson, 18.6.

Only three Kentucky counties remain in the red zone, which means they have at least 25.1 cases per 100,000 residents and are considered to have the highest risk of transmission. Asked if the state was doing anything to help pull Adair, Rockcastle and Webster counties out of the zone, Beshear said the state still has "red county recommendations" and that it remains willing and ready to help any county that ask for help. Not so long ago, almost all of Kentucky's 120 counties were in the red zone. 

The percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the virus in the past seven days is 2.78%, down slightly from Sunday when it was 2.79%, and now the 12th straight day of decline.

Kentucky hospitals reported 389 Covid-19 patients, up eight from Sunday; 112 of them in intensive care (the same); and 73 of those on a ventilator (up 20). The Lake Cumberland hospital readiness region is the only one using at least 80% of its intensive care unit beds, at 89%. 

The state announced six more Covid-19 deaths, all of them from the regularly reported health department reports. That brings the death toll to 6,662. 

The fatalities were a Daviess County woman, 66; a Fayette County woman, 71; a Green County woman, 55; a Jefferson County woman, 67; a Jefferson County man, 69; and a Pike County woman, 62. All of the deaths were reported in March and April. 

In other pandemic news Monday: 

• Counties with 10 or more new cases were Jefferson, 89; Campbell, 20; McCracken, 17; Kenton, 16; and Boone, 14. 
• Beshear said 70% of Kentucky's prison inmates have been vaccinated, and his administration was working to allow in-person visitation of vaccinated inmates by vaccinated visitors.
• Beshear said his current expectation is that there will be no mask mandate in schools in the fall. 
• A study, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, confirms what health officials have been widely reporting: Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective at preventing illness and death from the coronavirus in nursing homes, Deborah Yetter and Sarah Ladd report for the Louisville Courier Journal. According to a recent survey, they report, 70% of nursing-home residents but only 44% of nursing-home workers are vaccinated. 
• CDC says Covid-19 mask guidance is based on science; here's what the studies say, reports the Lexington Herald-Leader. 
• Kentucky schools hope to make it easy to get 12-15-year-olds vaccinated against Covid-19, the Herald-Leader reports.

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Positive-test rate for coronavirus in Kentucky declines again, to a level not seen since testing became widely available

Ky. Dept. for Public Health map, relabeled by Ky. Health News; for a larger version, click on it.

By Al Cross

Kentucky Health News

The percentage of Kentuckians testing positive for the coronavirus in the last seven days is almost at low as it has been since testing became widely available last June. The seven-day average was 2.79% on Sunday, the 11th straight day of decline.

The seven-day average of new cases rose by 13, to 516, with Sunday's report of 287 new cases. However, the rate of new cases per 100,000 residents declined again, for the 12th consecutive day. It was 8.61 per 100,000, the lowest it has been since the state started reporting the rate in December.

Counties with rate more than double the statewide rate on the state's daily report are Webster, 40.8; Rockcastle, 27.4; Adair, 25.3; Owen, 24.9; Estill, 23.3; Lewis, 21.5; Casey, 20.3; Henderson, 19.9; Union, 18.9; Powell, 18.5; Taylor, 18.3; and Montgomery, 17.8.

Those counties showed the scattered nature of local outbreaks of the virus. None of the three counties with rates considered critical (above 25 per 100,000) border each other, and two of them (Adair and Webster) border counties that have reported no cases in the last seven days (Crittenden and Cumberland).

Three other counties (Carlisle, Trigg and Knott) have reported no cases in the last week. Thirty-five counties have accelerated transmission and appear in orange on the state's county map of new-case rates.

Kentucky hospitals reported 381 Covid-19 patients, 22 fewer than Saturday and the lowest number in five weeks; 112 were in intensive care and 53 of those were on a ventilator. Only one hospital region, Lake Cumberland, reported over 80% of intensive-care beds occupied, at 91%, but most were not being used by Covid-19 patients.

The state reported eight more Covid-19 deaths, all from regular health-department reports, raising the state's death toll to 6,656.

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Nursing-home chief: How to know when it's time to look for one, post-pandemic, and some suggestions on what to look for

By Mary Haynes

Nazareth Home President & CEO

Most people wouldn’t expect social media, virtual tours, online support groups or VR training curriculum to be synonymous with modern skilled nursing practices. But the fact is, a lot has changed in specialized care as a result of the pandemic. Technology is now at the forefront of everything we’re doing. It’s part of a large-scale concerted effort to keep residents connected with loved ones in times of isolation and loneliness.

A trend toward more enhanced and integrated technology at skilled nursing centers means that families can feel more comfortable placing their loved ones in long-term care. While it is impossible to replace personal touch and in-person visits, technology is proving that it has a permanent place in enriching residents' and patients' lives. I believe putting this into perspective for families will shift the way they approach the decision to seek skilled nursing care.

With all of that said, there are several things that indicate it’s time to seek skilled care for a loved one. Do they need medical care for an injury or illness as in rehabilitation or specialized care? Are they consistently needing assistance with daily activities such as preparing meals, doing laundry or driving? Would around-the-clock nursing care and supervision be beneficial to them? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, it’s time to have that discussion.

Skilled care communities like Nazareth Home in Louisville provide care that focuses on each individual’s needs, preferences and abilities. We deliver specialized nursing care such as medication management; physical, occupational and speech therapy; specialized care for memory loss (Alzheimer's/dementia); proper nutrition for a healthy diet; and social and spiritual support.

What to look for in a care provider

There are many different ways to approach long-term care, but at Nazareth, we maintain a person-centered philosophy that prioritizes staff and resident alignment. This means that our residents receive consistent care from the same staff members in an effort to build a meaningful bond and trust between staff, residents and families.

This philosophy puts residents in control of their own care based on their personal preference, rather than a more clinical, rigid approach. I believe that residents must feel engaged in terms of their care – that’s the best, and arguably the only, way that will offer them a sense of meaning and purpose at this stage in their lives.

We are embracing all that technology has to offer in order to further our commitment to person-centered care. We’ve found that the pandemic has only increased the need for long-term facilities to empower their residents. Technology like online support groups, social media, and video chats have enabled us to care even deeper for our residents’ physical and mental well-being. I encourage families to seek a provider that is embracing technology in this way as it is so crucial in these times of isolation.

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