15th August 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
It’s all very confusing, isn’t it? For those of you who has already come in for your AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccination over the last few months, it’s all done and dusted. Some of you were lucky to have Pfizer. For the others who are still deliberating, the situation is getting more and more dire. The number of cases of the delta variant is surging and it doesn’t look like it’s coming down any time soon. Of course, sadly, the number of deaths is also increasing. Rather than getting more and more worried as the situation worsen, let’s look at the whole picture.
Houston, we have a problem! A big problem.
You probably heard that the delta variant is more contagious but you have no idea how “more contagious” mean. Previously, when you come into contact with the Covid-19 virus, there is an incubation period of one week. You are contagious on Day 5 but become symptomatic on Day 7. You are contagious in the community for two days and the tracers need to track down two generations of your contacts.
With the delta variant, when you come into contact with the virus, you become contagious the next day. Yet, you are still only symptomatic on Day 7 which means you are contagious for 5-6 days before you become symptomatic. The tracers have to track 5-6 generations of your contacts.
Thus, we are always behind the 8th ball when we find a positive swab in a patient. With few hundred new cases every day now for the last 7 weeks, we are now looking at potentially, 20-30,000 infectious people out in the community.
Further, it is thought that delta can be contagious within 10 seconds, the time, funny enough, it takes to scan your QR code with your phone.
Now, you see why we should all be worried. We have to vaccinate our way out of this outbreak.
Which vaccine?
If we have plenty of Pfizer in the fridge, we could offer Pfizer to everyone who wants it. But we don’t. As you can see above, there is an urgency to get vaccinated. This is for you and your family and the family of your colleagues and friends. We can’t wait for Pfizer which will become aplenty only in October, November or December. Please don’t risk it. The numbers of potentially contagious people around you is just so huge. As the Premier said couple of weeks ago, get whatever vaccine you can into your arm. Now.
What about those clots with AZ?
Yes, there is a 1:50,000 to 1:100,000 risk of developing a clot with the AZ depending on your age. The risk for those under 40 years old is, would you believe, the same as someone over 60 years old. So, what is this clotting business? Why are we still vaccinating using AZ?
The clots relating to AZ vaccine is a rare and unusual phenomenon. It is not related to anything to do with blood clots that we know of. Patients who previously had clots in the legs (DVT) or lungs are not at any higher risk of these clots. The clots relating to AZ is an immunological event which causes clots to form in the veins of the skull bone. This slow down the drainage of blood from the brain which causes the intracranial pressure to slowly increase over days. The earliest the clots causes problems is from Day 4 after the vaccine. 95% of patients who develop these clots will complain of headaches that are persistent and we can easily diagnosed with a simple blood test. If diagnosed early with the first few days, we can successfully treat the clots with blood thinners (anti-coagulants). It’s not that you have a clot today and you are in trouble tomorrow. We generally, have many days where there are warning symptoms to point us that there may be a clots. We have a few days to act and treat.
It’s that simple. We do have sufficient warning if you are the 1:50,000-1:100,000 person that develop the clots. It is treatable.
What should you do?
If you have not been vaccinated yet, the numbers of the delta variant of Covid-19 infection will continue to rise especially in south west Sydney. Unless you can get a Pfizer appointment within the next week or so, it is no longer safe to wait for Pfizer. Don’t become one of the statistics.