A tipping point has come for many families: this week, CVS and Walgreens health care workers will be breaking into nursing homes across the country on behalf of the federal government to vaccinate residents against the coronavirus. Not only will the gunfire help protect the country’s elderly and frail people – and the staff who care for them – but they will also increase the prospect of ending the devastating isolation many residents have felt for months.

Family members hope that they will soon be returning regularly to live with parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other loved ones. We discussed some frequently asked questions with experts.

Probably not by and large. The restrictions vary by state, and the federal government’s guidelines on what it deems safe are in place for now. They already allow visits under certain conditions. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended in September allowing outdoor visits with residents and indoor visits if the facility has been free of cases for 14 days.

Some medical experts have said that these guidelines are too lax and that visits should be severely restricted or even prohibited. However, some of these experts are now saying that the vaccine changes the equation a bit.

“Once all residents are vaccinated, the door will open to easing restrictions,” said Dr. Michael Wasserman, the immediate past president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine, geriatrician and former senior executive at nursing home chains.

To facilitate visits, Dr. Wasserman advised that all residents of a nursing home should be vaccinated (unless they have an illness or allergy that would prevent vaccination for medical reasons). All employees should be vaccinated. The nursing home should be able to ensure that visitors test negative for the coronavirus and have been disciplined about wearing a mask in public facilities.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccine clinical trials included people over 65 years of age. The results showed that it is safe and works for both older and younger people.

“This vaccine has been tested and clinically tested to ensure that it meets the highest safety standards. It’s safe to get even if you’ve already had the virus, ”read a campaign by the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living, a combined trade group that represents nursing homes and assisted living communities to encourage people to do so To get shots.

CMS chief administrator Seema Verma, in a statement last week, increased the confidence of elderly patients, including those with health problems, in the admission: “I urge states to give priority to nursing homes and vulnerable seniors in distributing the vaccine to grant. “

The point is made by Dr. Sabine von Preyss-Friedman, chief physician at Avalon Health Care Group, which operates nursing homes, affirmed who said the new vaccines are “safe and effective”.

Covid19 vaccinations>

Answers to your vaccine questions

With a coronavirus vaccine spreading out of the US, here are answers to some questions you may be wondering about:

    • If I live in the US, when can I get the vaccine? While the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary from state to state, most doctors and residents of long-term care facilities will come first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.
    • When can I get back to normal life after the vaccination? Life will only get back to normal once society as a whole receives adequate protection against the coronavirus. Once countries have approved a vaccine, they can only vaccinate a few percent of their citizens in the first few months. The unvaccinated majority remain susceptible to infection. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines show robust protection against disease. However, it is also possible that people spread the virus without knowing they are infected because they have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Scientists don’t yet know whether the vaccines will also block the transmission of the coronavirus. Even vaccinated people have to wear masks for the time being, avoid the crowds indoors and so on. Once enough people are vaccinated, it becomes very difficult for the coronavirus to find people at risk to become infected. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve this goal, life could approach a normal state in autumn 2021.
    • Do I still have to wear a mask after the vaccination? Yeah, but not forever. Here’s why. The coronavirus vaccines are injected deep into the muscles and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies. This seems to be sufficient protection to protect the vaccinated person from disease. What is not clear, however, is whether it is possible for the virus to bloom in the nose – and sneeze or exhale to infect others – even if antibodies have been mobilized elsewhere in the body to prevent that vaccinated person gets sick. The vaccine clinical trials were designed to determine if people who were vaccinated are protected from disease – not to find out if they can still spread the coronavirus. Based on studies of flu vaccines and even patients infected with Covid-19, researchers have reason to hope that people who are vaccinated will not spread the virus, but more research is needed. In the meantime, everyone – including those who have been vaccinated – must imagine themselves as possible silent shakers and continue to wear a mask. Read more here.
    • Will it hurt What are the side effects? The vaccine against Pfizer and BioNTech, like other typical vaccines, is delivered as a shot in the arm. The injection in your arm feels no different than any other vaccine, but the rate of short-lived side effects seems to be higher than with the flu shot. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported serious health problems. The side effects, which can be similar to symptoms of Covid-19, last about a day and are more likely to occur after the second dose. Early reports from vaccine trials suggest that some people may need to take a day off because they feel lousy after receiving the second dose. In the Pfizer study, around half developed fatigue. Other side effects occurred in at least 25 to 33 percent of patients, sometimes more, including headache, chills, and muscle pain. While these experiences are not pleasant, they are a good sign that your own immune system is having a strong response to the vaccine that provides lasting immunity.
    • Will mRNA vaccines change my genes? No. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to boost the immune system. This molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell, allowing the molecule to slide inside. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus that can stimulate the immune system. At any given moment, each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules that they produce to make their own proteins. As soon as these proteins are made, our cells use special enzymes to break down the mRNA. The mRNA molecules that our cells make can only survive a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzymes a little longer, so the cells can make extra viral proteins and trigger a stronger immune response. However, the mRNA can hold for a few days at most before it is destroyed.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both require two injections – the first shot and a booster three or four weeks later. Dr. von Preyss-Friedman recommends waiting for a visit at least two weeks after the second shot.

“They hope these vaccines will work, but these are elderly patients,” she said. “You want to err on the side of protection.”

She said that ideally the visitor would also be vaccinated. Since shots may not be widely available for a few months, it may be best to wait to get your vaccine. Until then, she believes that nursing homes should consider visits on a case-by-case basis.

Absolutely, said medical experts. This is especially true if they are not vaccinated, but even after they are vaccinated, “until rates drop in the community,” said Dr. Joshua Uy, geriatrician and associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and medical director of the Renaissance Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, a nursing home in Philadelphia.

Dr. Uy hopes the federal government will provide enough personal protective equipment so that all visitors and residents can be appropriately dressed for such visits.

The Nursing Home and Assisted Living Combined Trading Group has started a program to help nursing homes and other care facilities explain the essential need to receive the vaccine to residents. The #getvaccinned campaign states: “The elderly are at a much higher risk of getting very sick, being hospitalized or dying of Covid-19. It has been shown that the vaccine offers a high level of protection against serious diseases due to Covid-19. “

But the people they love the most may have more effective persuasive powers. Families can help, said Dr. Uy, by encouraging their parents and grandparents in nursing homes to get vaccinated.

“The vaccine,” he said, “will be our way out.”

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