Happy New Year!
Like many of you, when I saw the photos of people receiving the newly-approved COVID vaccines, I was filled with hope. We have a long way to go, but knowing that we may have a concrete way out of this lousy situation made me feel better than I had in a long time.
Diabetes of any type means asking more questions of our health care providers and educating ourselves more perhaps than people without diabetes in their families. That’s why I thought it might be helpful to gather stories of health care workers with type 1 who opted to received the vaccine in this early roll out.
You’ll hear from a diabetes educator, a pediatric endo, an ICU nurse and a hospital worker, all sharing their thoughts. I also interviewed Dr. Stephen Ponder for a broader perspective about the vaccine and what he’s advising his patients – pediatric and adults – to do to stay safe over the next few months.
The trials for the vaccines released in the US as of this writing – Pfizer and Moderna, included people with diabetes. I spoke with Helene Cooper back in September about her participation in the Moderna trial. You can listen to that episode here:
Helene got the second Moderna shot at the end of September and I followed up with her last week. She still doesn’t know if she received the actual vaccine or the placebo. She did say she had no reaction to either shot – no arm soreness or any reaction, so she suspects she received the placebo, although she admits she may never know. (Whether people in the trials who received the placebo will now get the actual vaccine is being debated)
Helene is hopeful that more people will get the vaccine. She says “I was raised in Liberia, with yellow fever, small pox, malaria, etc all prevalent; we don’t mess around there with anti-vaxxing.”
I’ll continue to follow these folks and keep you posted on vaccine news as it pertains to people with diabetes. As always, more information and episode transcriptions over at www.diabetes-connections.com.
Cheers to brighter days ahead & happy 2021!
I am so excited that we have hope on the horizon. I realize based on the American college of rheumatology advice, I will not likely get the vaccine unless i give up my RA meds for 6-8 months. It is like putting a gun to my temple. Give up the RA meds to get the vaccine, or stay quarantined and give up the vaccine. It looks like a long 2021 might be in store.