COVID-19 vaccines

The four main vaccines against COVID-19 can be classified into the following groups:

a)      Astra Zeneca and Janssen: Adenoviruses genetically modified to produce a protein, a part of the coronavirus causing COVID-19. This protein should give rise to the manufacture of antibodies to fight it, which would also attack the virus if it is present. These vaccines can cause blood clots that can even lead to death.

b)      Pfizer and Moderna: A messenger RNA molecule that synthesizes a coronavirus protein. These vaccines can cause heart ailments, according to studies conducted in Israel and other countries.

There is a lot of talk about risks. We all want vaccines to be safe. However, as I said in a previous post in this blog, there is no such thing as zero risk. That post compares several risk factors, and it can be seen that the greatest risk for human life is being in the womb: abortion companies kill a sixth of human beings that would have been born if they had not been murdered. A risk of 1 in 6 is very high.

In relation to vaccines against COVID-19, the cry is raised when we get risks of 1 in 100,000 or even 1 in a million, and the administration of those vaccines is forbidden (at least temporarily), or the age of the population who receive them is drastically modified, without being very clear whether this is useful. At first glance, it seems that these risks are ridiculous and that any opposition to vaccines based on them should be laughable. But of course, there are particular cases.

I am going to tell my own case. On April 3, I was inoculated with the first dose of the Moderna vaccine. On April 30 in the afternoon, the second. On the morning of May 3, I couldn't wake up. The people in the ambulance that came to treat me detected cardiac arrhythmias and were unable to maintain my vital signs. I was admitted to a hospital. The medical history of my case says the following:

Reason for admission: Advanced heart block. Current history: 75-year-old male admitted for syncope with subsequent deterioration in level of consciousness. No history of interest, other than vaccination a few days ago for SARS-CoV2 (Modern). Intubation. Improvement of the disorder with atropine and aleudrine, but the patient continues non-reactive for several hours after the administration of midazolam and etomidate. After pharmacological lavage and radiological study that ruled out cerebrovascular event, the patient began to mobilize. It was decided to admit the patient to the coronary unit and implant a transient pacemaker without incident.

I spent Monday in a coma and don't remember anything. On Tuesday I was implanted a permanent pacemaker (I don’t remember this operation).

I spent Wednesday and Thursday in the ICU for critical cases. On Friday morning I was transferred to a less supervised ICU. On Friday afternoon I was taken out of the ICU and transferred to the ward. The following days, until next Wednesday, when I was discharged, I was fighting a hospital infection.

What is my conclusion? The vaccine has brought me to death's door, despite being just a protein of the virus. If the whole virus had infected me, I probably would have died. Therefore, it’s surely better to have been vaccinated, even if I have won the prize in the side effects lottery.

I end with a personal consideration: It looks like God still needs me in this world. I’ll try to find out what He wants me to do, and do it.

The same post in Spanish

Thematic Thread about Linguistics and Medicine: Previous Next

Manuel Alfonseca