Romantic comedies are predictable. You’ve seen this movie: a young professional woman from the city, comes home to the farm, who reluctantly falls in love with the charming young man who works there. After some ups and downs, the story ends with the couple kissing at the town dance. Watch a few of these, and you’ll crave a plot twist.
The COVID story played out in real time for all of us, and it certainly has had some twists. The final chapter is still to be written. Some stories indeed need to be experienced in their entirety to be understood. In the story of this pandemic, much of the science took time to be learned.
We first learned that the COVID vaccines are incredible protectors but could be better. Unlike some past vaccines, such as polio or measles, the COVID vaccine doesn’t keep everyone from getting infected as initially thought. The vaccine will make you much less likely to get sick and save you from experiencing severe symptoms leading to death. Similarly, the PAXLOVID medication is an antiviral pill that adds a second layer of protection for our high-risk elders who become infected and prevent them from getting so sick they require hospitalization or even die. At first glance, neither the “Vax” nor the “Pax” is the miracle we might have wished for, but they have miraculously impacted our vulnerable elders. In the COVID story, they’re the heroes that saved the day.
As in any good story, some antagonists will tell you that the plot twists were deviously intentional, and facts were kept from you. Now, we can see the twists for what they were and speak to the efficacy of Vax and Pax, prevention, and treatment. We spent three years building these highly effective tools. Now is the time to adopt and use them. There is no longer a reason to wait.
Call your doctor to get treatment if you are sick. Get the bivalent vaccine now.
Vax & Pax Toolkit
AMDA — the Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine — released a toolkit that dives into diagnosing, preventing, and treating COVID. It’s the most thorough and concise document I’ve seen, compiling everything we know about dealing with COVID. It’s intended for healthcare workers, but anyone would benefit from this bottom-line information. You can download the toolkit by clicking here: https://drvonpreyss.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/VaxandPaxtoolkit.pdf
