I think I’m just tired of saying “COVID-19”.    We still get questions about this, so here is a brief summary of where we are:

Yes, you still need a mask in the clinic.  You can spread the virus while being asymptomatic, so we ask you to protect other patients that are higher risk due to age, medical conditions, cancer treatments or immunocompromised.  We all agree, masks are not foolproof, but they are proven to help and that’s enough. FYI: it’s not fun for us either. 

Everyone has rights, and you should be skeptical of new vaccines, medications, and the government at times.  The problem is that this situation is a pandemic, and if you live in a society then you should vaccinate.   As a society we follow rules to protect others:  drive on the right side of the road, don’t drink and drive, assist others in need, cover your mouth when you cough, vaccinate for contagious diseases like measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and now Covid.  

Which vaccine:  Moderna appears to work better than Pfizer right now, but take what you can.   We do not recommend the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. 

The vaccine allows you to temporarily make the spike protein, one of the proteins of the virus, in order to create a natural immune response against the virus.
It does not change your DNA. It does not cause infertility.  It’s remarkably well tolerated.  It’s the same spike protein you’ll be getting from the virus, but without the virus.   It’s Infinitely safer than the virus.
You will be exposed to the virus eventually, it’s far to contagious to avoid now.  You will get it.  If you vaccinate in time, you’ll have some natural antibodies to help fight the infection, it disarms the viral infection and turns it into a bad cold. You are down to two choices, 1 in 40 have heart damage from the virus, down to 1 in 20,000 if vaccinated.  The vaccine is the safer choice. 

Plaquenil and Ivermectin are not shown to help.  Studies that show benefit are incredibly flawed, some with plagiarism and false data, this is very concerning.  We have people relying on these treatments and they are getting hospitalized with severely low oxygen levels.  The quality of these studies would be the same as if we wrote a study where we announce  the cure for covid by presenting data on a hundred patients that did remarkably well without hospitaliztion and minor symptoms with the only common treatment of being swabbed for the virus, that’s if we omit the cases that were hospitalized and have passed away.  It’s wrong and it’s misleading. We all hope one of these treatments or another will be helpful, but have to be sure safe and not more risky which is a complicated process, especially when there is already a preventive vaccine that is very, very effective. 

A record number of folks are seeking treatment with an investigational monoclonal antibody coctail for treatment of symptomatic COVID, called casirivimab and imdevimab, or regen-cov, most are the same folks that are skeptical of or have not vaccinated.  When you’re symptomatic enough, your threshold comes down, however you could already have antibodies naturally with the vaccine.  

If you already had Covid, you likely have some antibodies, which is about a tenth of immune response from the vaccine, so you’re still at risk from variants. The vaccine boosts your immunity.  Once everyone has had the infection and/or vaccine then we should all be ok, and in theory it’ll become just another coronavirus cold for future generations. Hopefully hospitals will go back to normal and masks can go away. 

If you want a letter to exempt you from the vaccine, you’ll need a rheumatologist or infectious disease specialist to write this, as the only contraindication to vaccination is severe allergic reaction to the covid vaccine, and that only has a 20% chance of happening again and is treatable with antihistamines. 

If you’re sick, we’ll still book your appointment, but will take the history by video chat, gather information, and then see you outside in the parking lot to examine and test if appropriate.  This is to protect the safety of others that are not infected. You’ll still be seen but in a manner that is safer for everyone.

We’ll keep doing everything we can to help, and trying to encourage the best defense as well as treatment is generally a priority right now.  Everyone stay safe and healthy!