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Many unvaccinated people have recently asked me specific questions about the vaccines, what I see in the world of the hospice and COVID-19. First, let me say, this COVID-19 thing is serious. This is Russian roulette with a virus. If you haven’t already, please get vaccinated.
I’m sick of all the deaths. This COVID-19 delta variant is particularly nasty and highly transferable. People die. Young, healthy people die. I see that every day now. It is heartbreaking to see someone suffocate and unable to catch their breath. Do you want to know how it is? Put your head in a bucket of water and hold it there for as long as possible. Longer. Try waterboarding. Now consider, this is your existence every other day and night, weeks to months at the end.
Some people believe that when they are hospitalized they will be miraculously healed, like on TV. Here’s the truth: medicine can only help a body heal itself. If a body is unable to heal itself, it dies. Medicine cannot prevent that. We can keep a body alive longer through ventilation in the hope that the body can continue to heal, but eventually the body either heals on its own or it dies. And even if your body can heal enough to move on, significant damage can still occur for the rest of your life.
So please get vaccinated.
Will the vaccine stop you from contracting COVID-19? No. But it can keep you from DYING if you catch it. We now have the opportunity to preventively build up our own immunity to COVID-19, which will help our bodies fight it off if we come into contact with it. So why face a virus without a proper defense system? Vaccines help us build this defense system.
Will the vaccine always provide immunity? No. There are some rare people who do not develop immunity despite being vaccinated. But the vast majority of us have an immune system that is able to build an effective defense system. So get vaccinated.
THE VACCINE won’t give you COVID-19. Yes, you can feel sore and brittle for a few days. Actually, that’s a good thing. Pain and a mild fever are signs that your body is activating its immune system to build immunity to the substance in a vaccine. In this case, the vaccine will teach your immune system to recognize a specific part of the outside of the COVID-19 virus and then build a defense against that specific part.
Well, I admit that there are a few exceptions for vaccination – but these are very few. If you are immunocompromised, have an autoimmune disease, or have had a serious life-threatening reaction to vaccines in the past, you should speak to your doctor before vaccination. But religious beliefs are not valid unless your religion teaches that it is okay to die young. I can’t think of any religion that really wants that.
“I’m afraid” and “I heard that one person had a bad side effect” are also not valid reasons. Whether it’s fear of needles or worry that unknown substances will be injected into your body, fear and worry are not valid reasons to avoid the vaccine. When you are hospitalized with COVID-19, you will be injected with lots of needles and unknown substances into your body, and possibly a ventilator, tracheal and tube feeding – as well as all the humiliations of incontinence, possibly a Foley catheter (urinary drainage). ) and a rectal tube (poop drain).
WE nurses burned out on all the deaths. We cried, begged, pleaded that dying should stop. But it goes on. Now, lately, there are two and three deaths happening at the same time. We are frustrated. We are angry. We are exhausted.
These deaths are unnecessary. Our exhaustion and compassion fatigue are unnecessary. Only you can prevent dying, only you can help make our work so much easier.
So please. To be vaccinated.
Rebecca Forgan, RN, BSN, who lives in Kailua, is a hospice nurse at an Oahu hospice agency helping patients and families transition from hospital to hospice care.
source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/19/column-from-exhausted-hawaii-hospice-nurse-please-get-the-covid-19-vaccine/
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