cny rider

This seems paranoid.

Force fed by whom? The public health officials whose job it is to fight pandemic illness? The doctors and nurses who have seen enough death for a lifetime and want people to be protected? Or was it those parents who want their kids to be able to attend school in person, maybe even without masks once the infection rates are down from vaccination? Or was it the small business owners who knew their businesses wouldn't survive unless infection rates went down and people started shopping in person, attending events, going to the hairdresser and the hardware store? And from a logical standpoint: The "hard sell" is irrelevant. You should make decisions that favor your survival, even if you think there's some nefarious "they" who want you to do something.

What the hospital is doing is perfectly reasonable. It's not the vaccinated who are politicizing this issue. First remember the basics: We are in the middle of a viral pandemic. We have all been offered a vaccine that is safe, highly effective, and costs us nothing out of pocket. Taking the vaccine lessens ones risk of severe illness and death. It also benefits many other people, by reducing risk for the elderly and infirm and others who are not fully protected even with vaccination. It also benefits society at large, as limiting outbreaks makes it more likely our kids are physically attending school, our businesses are open, and our hospitals are able to function. You can spin that however you like but that's the bottom line with vaccination. The decision not to take it calls ones judgement and decision making into question. This is relevant when planning a highly complex medical intervention where strict adherence to a prescribed regimen, and good decision making are essential. Second, specifically regarding the transplant: The donor is not a big issue. They can be screened, isolated, rechecked until the transplant team is confident they are Covid free. The recipient is the issue. They are going to have to have meticulous compliance with a complicated, involved post surgical care plan. A major part of that care plan will be long term use of potent immunosuppressive medications. So if they can't follow medical recommendations to get vaccinated before the procedure.....they are unlikely to generate an immune response even if vaccinated post procedure. They are also signaling an unwillingness to follow medical recommendations. They then present an ongoing risk to themselves, their transplant team, and the other patients around them. This is not unique to covid and kidney transplant. If you want to have anti-obesity surgery you must be compliant with a prescribed medical regimen including weight loss before you will have surgery. If you need a bone marrow transplant you have to demonstrate you can be compliant in the post-transplant period, including having a full time caregiver. If you cant do those things, you don't proceed.

Agreed!

We certainly agree on that CDC recommendation regarding the holidays. Completely ridiculous and not grounded in reasonable risk/benefit analysis. I've had 50 Thanksgivings and last year was the first I had without my mother. It was tremendously depressing, but with no vaccines and my wife and I working in health care it was the right thing to do. There's no way we are missing it this year.

Honest question: Have you ever walked into a room knowing that there was something in the room that could kill you, or the members of your family if you brought it home? Like if you got overheated in your mask/shield/gown/gloves etc. and had a momentary lapse of judgement and wiped the sweat that was dripping down into your eyes? Or didn't have a perfectly tight seal on your mask that you had worn for multiple days because there weren't any others, even though it was meant to be used for one day and discarded? It was a new experience for me, for sure, around Christmas of last year. It can make you look at things in a new light.

It's not just the virus, the host has a large part to do with it. Some people have Covid and even when asymptomatic shed massive quantities of virus, thereby infecting others around them. Others shed very little virus. Your wife is probably in the latter category.

It poured again here last night and we have been locked in misery mist/drizzle all day today.

If you have it, even post vaccine you should test positive. The tests are highly sensitive, and even reduced viral load will yield a positive.

That's an interesting point....but what does it have to do with judging? What do you propose we do about that?

The survival rate does not nearly capture the impact of this virus on our society. I am not demanding people do anything, but suggesting they should face the consequences of their decisions. Start with higher insurance premiums, to cover their higher Covid related costs. Continue to require evidence of vaccine or immunity to go to a concert or a Bills game, or to get on an airplane. Stop interfering with private business decisions. Allow employers to mandate vaccination or face job loss, without vaccination.

We are not mindless automatons. There is a huge difference between the unvaccinated Covid patient and all those others: The person who chose not to get Covid vaccine, then got Covid and came to the hospital is putting my life and many others at risk with their decision. If I decide that driving on the left side of the road is better for me, should I be able go out in my car this afternoon and do that? Do the negative consequences for everyone else matter? Should I ever be able to see my elderly parents for Thanksgiving again without worrying about bringing Covid to their house after taking care of the unvaccinated? Society's needs have to come into play, and be balanced with the individual. Is it OK for someone skip a $30 Covid vaccination and then get Regeneron antibodies for thousands of dollars at taxpayer expense? Is it OK for the unvaccinated to make it more likely that children get shut out of school by ongoing surges in infections? How about the effect it has on the economy? What obligation do we all have to those with blood cancers, and organ transplants, who can't mount an effective immune response to the vaccine and remain at high risk? We protect them when we get vaccinated and wear masks in high risk situations. All things to think about.

2.8 inches in my gauge since it started raining Sunday afternoon.

Talking to your obese patients, and prescribing cholesterol and hypertension meds are not mutually exclusive actions. The big difference being of course that none of my smoker lung cancer patients have something transmissible that can kill me or my family members. If people get vaccinated they are much less likely to need to come expose health care providers to a deadly virus. The exodus of workers out of health care has just begun.

There's parts of the interaction that both parties could think about. Mrs. Matt chose not to get a vaccine that is highly effective against hospitalization and death from Covid. Now she is in the ER, and the nurses and Doctors there are literally risking their lives to take care of her, in a situation that very likely would not have happened if she had been vaccinated. Yes, they have been vaccinated, but the vaccine isn't perfect. Having done this for almost 2 years now, the frustration level is getting really high for some people in health care when confronted with patients who refuse to take the vaccine but expect others to continue risking their lives to provide care. Almost everyone in health care knows colleagues who have died from this virus. I'm not defending grumpiness or a poor bedside manner but people in health care are frustrated, exhausted and demoralized.

ICU beds are a small fraction of the beds and healthcare provided in a hospital.

It’s unfortunate and not optimal for anyone but our health care facilities are overrun with unvaccinated people infected with COVID.

Absolutely, what good is it having "average weather" in late October with a high of 46F and drizzle?

I also caved this morning and we ran the furnace. I'm not ready to deal with the pellet stove yet, and we shouldn't need it after today.

Yep that’s the rules. I had my phone in hand with everyone’s certificates ready as we went through the whole airline check in and customs processing…..and nobody ever asked to see it.

We flew back home from Iceland a month ago. We had the antigen test done as required two days before returning to the States. It took a lot of planning and hassle. Nobody ever asked to see the test result. I'm assuming (hoping) they get them from the airline or directly from the Icelandic Health service?

We have been fortunate so far.

Big piles of maple and ash leaves, all brown, in late September. Who has that on their tourist foliage map I wonder? That cluster is maple and ash mix and thinning out quickly.

I'm raking big piles of dry brown dead leaves, mainly from our maples. I don't think they liked being so wet all summer. These leaves never got colorful, they just shriveled up, turned brown and are now falling. I expect the incoming windy rainstorm will take a bunch more down. Who knows what we will see for colors in a couple of weeks but this isn't encouraging......

Thank you.