Unvaccinated perpetuating pandemic
Dear Dr. Roach: You recently replied to a question regarding vaccination among health care workers by saying “they are ethically obligated to get the vaccine in order not to infect their patients.” But isn’t it true that the vaccinated are getting COVID and also infecting others? It is protection for the vaccinated, but it’s not protection for those around them.
S.C.
Answer: You are mistaken that the vaccine does not protect others. While it is true that there can be breakthrough infections among the vaccinated, the risk of an infection is much lower among vaccinated than unvaccinated. Consequently, the risk of spreading the disease is much lower. People who have had a breakthrough infection are infectious for a shorter period than unvaccinated people and have less infectious virus overall. It is the unvaccinated who are continuing this pandemic, and if everyone (or even nearly everyone) were vaccinated with currently available vaccines, there would be no more pandemic.
Requiring health care workers, who are at particularly high risk for infecting others, to be vaccinated makes medical and scientific sense.
Dear Dr. Roach: After I was diagnosed with polycythemia vera, I started to donate blood when my hemoglobin level was elevated. I go every two months to donate a pint of blood.
So far, so good. My regular doctor and hematologist are happy with the result. Are there any vitamins I should take?
P.P.F.
Answer: In polycythemia vera, the bone marrow makes too much red blood cells. It is a myeloproliferative neoplasm, which is a type of blood cancer.
Phlebotomy is a mainstay of people with early or mild P. vera.
You might think that minerals like iron would be useful in people with P. vera, but iron supplements are not given, because low iron levels help control the excess blood production.
Similarly, vitamin B12 and folic acid, necessary for red blood cell production, also may stimulate blood cell production. They should not be taken except under express orders from your hematologist.