Doctor Bezdíčková: Interest in covid vaccination in Prague is growing!
What has changed people’s perceptions of vaccination?
The covidu is increasing, and this is reflected not only in the statistics, but also in patients around them. Their relatives are sick, they are not really well. Patients to whom I repeatedly offered the vaccine, and they did not want to, suddenly call themselves and are interested in vaccinations. The second aspect is, of course, the abolition of reimbursement of tests and the requirement for a certificate of vaccination, test or illness in swimming pools, restaurants and other places where people want to go.
Did you experience that someone was not vaccinated and then regretted it?
I now had two young patients who regretted it. Even when they were already infected, they met older relatives and feared they had become infected. Fortunately, it turned out well. But even young, perfectly healthy people between the ages of thirty went through twenty and twenty febrile illnesses that lasted three weeks, during which time they were infectious patients because their condition became infectious and it seemed necessary to be hospitalized.
What vaccine is most interested in?
Younger people in particular want the Janssen single-dose vector vaccine to be certified quickly. I admit that I’m trying to explain to them that mRNA (Comirnaty – Pfizer or Spikevax – Moderna, editor’s note) the vaccine given in two doses protects against disease and hospitalization better than the vector. Still, there are some who just want Janssen exclusively, and I think it’s better to be vaccinated with at least something there. Older people are usually interested in vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.
Do patients ask you if you have been vaccinated?
Yes, I’m interested. And I wonder how I reacted. I was vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer vaccine and then I took Modern because we had her in the office. After the third time, when I was still vaccinated with the flu vaccine, I had about three days of fever, I was not feeling well. One young colleague, a doctor, also had a fever. I’m completely honest with patients, so I told them it could happen. Some have such a reaction, some do not. But in the end, none of my patients over the age of 65 had similar problems.
Are people afraid of the side effects?
It is true that vaccines against covidize more reactions than other adult vaccines. But for example, children have a fever after vaccination quite commonly and I consider it normal. I don’t think it’s good for people to rub honey around their mouths, that they certainly won’t have anything after the vaccine. Rather, it is important to explain sensitively why it makes sense to get vaccinated even at the cost of possible short-term side effects. However, serious side effects are extremely rare, I have not personally encountered any of the patients vaccinated in our office.
Trust the experts
What to do if I get covid? What side effects may I have after the vaccine? Information can be found on the website of the Society of General Medicine of the Czech Medical Association JEP: www.svl.cz/informace-pro-pacienty
Apply the third dose of covid vaccination – everything you need to know.
Apply the third dose of covid vaccination – everything you need to know. Videohub