With the recent news announcements about the COVID-19 vaccine approvals for emergency use, the office has been called regarding various personal concerns. I wanted to create a quick update to answer some of the consistent concerns. Also I wanted to make you aware of a few things you might not be seeing in the news. I would remind patients that I do post various articles and content on three particular social media sites- namely: Dr.Kordonowy on Facebook (also on the main website page), Dr. Kordonowy on Twitter and Dr. Kordonowy on Linkedin. Feel free to check those sites for some day-to-day notices.

As I am writing this I just saw a news release that 6 of 7 Bell's palsy cases were noted in the persons vaccinated versus one in the placebo group. The FDA now warn's "To monitor" for Bell's Palsy. Is monitoring a health warning? I am unclear on that.

What is Bell's palsy? It is an acute loss of cranial nerve motor function such that the individual loses control of part of their facial muscles. Historically such palsy's are felt to be linked to infections specifically from some of the herpes viruses. They can be a presentation of autoimmune polyneuropathy (Guillain Barre syndrome). The incidence of Bell's Palsy in the US is 23 per 100,000 cases. The two vaccines enrolled just under 80,000 test subjects. This means the number of cases are not outside the normal ratio. What is strange and concerning is that 6 of the 7 cases by "chance" happened in the vaccine group, This will require more monitoring.

I am sure many of you read that severe anaphylactic reactions requiring emergency use of epinephrine to address the acute loss of blood pressure and airway control that results in this reaction occurred in two vaccinated persons on day one in the UK. These individuals had a history of such reactions and conveniently had their own treatment in hand. You might want to consider if the local pharmacy chains are where you want to be vaccinated. Pharmacists are not trained physicians. I am unaware if each access store has a pharmacist trained in acute anaphylaxis management and advanced life-support management.

I read that 1 of 5 persons experienced meaningful side effects. The issues are local reactions, fevers and flu-like symptoms. That is a high rate of reaction. This is so high that the hospitals plan to stagger vaccinating critical staff so as not to lose critical workers needed to care for patients.

There is clearly not nearly enough vaccine available for most of us to get the vaccine in the foreseeable future. The efforts will initially be focused on hospital ICU staff and ER staff. This is an appropriate decision. Once that group is vaccinated we can start moving to the highest risk group which is those 80 years and older. Captured audiences like prisons and nursing homes will be the next highest priority. it seems very reasonable not to expect the average outpatient person to have access to the vaccine for many weeks to several months.

As you are aware,the entire country is experiencing rising case of COVID-19. I have suggested and warned my patients and readers that this is expected given Coronaviruses are winter season recurring respiratory pathogens and this is the first true winter this virus is circulating. I can attest using my normal protocols and an onsite, 10 minute antigen test (this test measures for activity of live COVID-19 virus) that cases began to rise just prior to Thanksgiving and have continued to rise to this point. So far this week things appear to be improving.

Following facts and statistics I think after this current surge trends downward we will have exposed nearly 50% of our citizens to COVID-19 infection. To me this means by the new year we will have seen to worse of this. Data has shown that during outbreaks (up to September) for every one confirmed COVID case there are 8-10 persons who have antibodies to the virus. This means they were exposed, infected and their immune system fought off the infection. If that is the case then 15 million (positive case rate) x (8-10)+ 120-150 million people have been infected to date. We are talking about having 2 million vaccines available in the near term. If this epidemic ends by the first quarter of this year it isn't due to vaccine, rather it is the mathematical predicted outcome of acquired herd immunity.

If you have been infected you the risk of reinfection is extremely remote. Taking the vaccine this season to me makes no medical sense and will rob others of possible more significant protection. Due to the shortage of vaccine I will be recommending antibody testing before any potential patient candidates accept the vaccine.

In summary- most of us interested in getting vaccinated likely won't have the opportunity until after the new year. It will be tremendously helpful to get our front line acute care health staff vaccinated and protected.

If there are grammatical or punctuation errors in this notice I apologize. I didn't edit this beyond this draft in order to get this information out to you as soon as possible.