COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for pregnant women
Dear Dr. Roach: What are your thoughts on the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy? I have read that it is safe. Could you explain how?
— H.B.
Pregnant women do not seem to be more likely to get COVID-19, but they are more likely to have complications from it. Preterm birth rates and the need for Caesarian section both are increased in a pregnancy that is affected by COVID-19, when compared with women who do not get infected. Fortunately, over 90% of infected pregnant women will recover from COVID-19 before delivery. Still, pregnant women are more likely to require intensive care and mechanical ventilation, so protection should be top of mind.
Since the vaccine is brand-new, there are not robust safety data on the use of the vaccine in pregnancy; however, expert opinion is generally on the side of recommending the vaccine. The MRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer do not contain any live virus. An MRNA vaccine works by “telling” the muscle cells in the arm the vaccine is injected into to make a viral protein, called the spike protein. “MRNA” is for “messenger RNA”: It’s how DNA encodes instructions for making proteins. The MRNA last for only a short time in the body and cannot become part of a person’s cells because MRNA is destroyed by the body’s own mechanisms shortly after the cells have made the spike protein. The body learns to recognize the spike protein as a foreign invader, with the protein the body acting as a primer to the immune system. Long after the spike proteins made post-vaccination by the muscle cells are destroyed, the B cells and T cells remember how to mount a fast and effective response to destroy any virus before it can cause illness, should the person become exposed to the virus. Neither the MRNA nor the spike protein poses a danger to the developing fetus.
Because the risks for pregnant women are greater than those of nonpregnant women, the vaccine is probably more important to give to pregnant women.
Dear Dr. Roach: My doctor started me on Flomax for prostate symptoms, but I developed retrograde ejaculation. It bothers me. What should I do next?
— V.M.
Retrograde ejaculation refers to semen traveling backward into the bladder during sexual activity. It is sometimes called a dry orgasm. It is a known complication of alpha blockers, such as tamsulosin (Flomax). It is a cause of infertility, which may or may not be a concern for you.
Although medications can be used to treat retrograde ejaculation, I suspect your doctor will stop the tamsulosin and try a different class of medication for your prostate symptoms, such as finasteride. These take much longer to work than tamsulosin. Alternatively, a urologist can provide other options for prostate treatment, such as surgery, and newer procedures, such as laser, freezing, urethral lift and water vapor treatments.
Today is Monday, March 1, the 60th day of 2021. There are 305 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1781: The Continental Congress declared the Articles of Confederation to be in force, following ratification by Maryland.
1893: Inventor Nikola Tesla first publicly demonstrated radio during a meeting of the National Electric Light Association in St. Louis by transmitting electromagnetic energy without wires.
1954: Four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the spectators’ gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five members of Congress.
1954: The United States detonated a dry-fuel hydrogen bomb, codenamed Castle Bravo, at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
1957: “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr.
Seuss was released to bookstores by Random House.
1961: President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order establishing the Peace Corps.
1966: The Soviet space probe Venera 3 impacted the surface of Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to reach another planet; however, Venera was unable to transmit any data, its communications system having failed.
1968: Johnny Cash married June Carter at the First Methodist Church in Franklin, Kentucky.
1971: A bomb went off inside a men’s room at the U.S. Capitol; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn blast.
1974: Seven people, including former Nixon White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman, former Attorney General John Mitchell and former assistant Attorney General Robert Mardian, were indicted on charges of conspiring to obstruct justice in connection with the Watergate break-in. (These four defendants were convicted in Jan. 1975, although Mardian’s conviction was later reversed.)
2005: Dennis Rader, the churchgoing family man accused of leading a double life as the BTK serial killer, was charged in Wichita, Kansas, with 10 counts of first-degree murder. (Rader later pleaded guilty and received multiple life sentences.) A closely divided Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juvenile criminals.
2010: Jay Leno returned as host of NBC’S “The Tonight Show.”
2015: Tens of thousands marched through Moscow in honor of slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who had been shot to death on Feb. 27.
Actor Robert Clary (“Hogan’s Heroes”) is 95. Singer-actor Harry Belafonte is 94. Singer Mike D’abo of Manfred Mann is 77. Singer Roger Daltrey of The Who is 77. Actor Dirk Benedict (“The A Team”) is 76. Actor-director Ron Howard is 67. Actor Catherine Bach (“The Dukes of Hazzard”) is 66. Actor
Tim Daly is 65. Actor
George Eads (“CSI”) is 54. Actor Javier Bardem is 53. Actor Jack Davenport (“Pirates of the Caribbean”) is 48. Guitarist Ryan Peake of Nickelback is 48. Actor Mark-paul Gosselaar is 47. Actor Jensen Ackles is 43. TV host Donovan Patton is 43. Actor Lupita Nyong’o (“Black Panther”) is 38. Singer Kesha is 34. Singer Sammie is 34. Singer Justin Bieber is 27.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Among the NHL’S edicts issued Feb. 11, which were termed “enhanced” COVID-19 measures, was one regarding team meetings that has particularly distressed Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella.
Since that date, all team meetings across the league, outside of intermissions, are required to be conducted remotely via video conferencing. That includes everything from coaches’ meetings to video reviews with players, which doesn’t exactly thrill longtimers such as Tortorella, who much prefer in-person interactions with players and assistant coaches.
“It’s a weird year to coach, in protocols, where you have to use some virtual meetings because they don’t want
The Blue Jackets, heading into their game against the Predators in Nashville on Sunday afternoon, had lost four in a row (one by shootout). They had lost six out of seven (two in extra time) and dipped below .500. They were 8-9-5 and in fifth place, just under the playoff bar, in the Central Division.
Worse, these Jackets did not look good and did not smell good.
Their aesthetic and their odor were magnified by the fact that they already have played 40% of their abbreviated, 56-game schedule. Which is to say it’s getting late early this year. Thus, when Julien was canned (“en conserve”) and everyone began to wonder who would be next, John Tortorella was an obvious fixation.
Sunday morning, Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen basically issued a cessation of fixation before he headed over to Bridgestone Arena to watch his struggling team.
“I don’t ever speculate,” Kekalainen said in a phone interview. “All I’ll say is (Tortorella) has been a great coach for us for many years now. We’ve had setbacks before and come back from them, and I believe we’ll do the same with the (coaching) staff this year.”
Tortorella has had an interesting career and there are those who, rightly or wrongly, for good or for ill, focus squarely on the more controversial aspects of it. In caricature, he is intractable to the point of detriment and drives off players he ought to do more to embrace.
Although his story is more complicated and nuanced than it is perceived to be, Tortorella (and Kekalainen) must live with the perception. Take a recent example: There are those who think Tortorella played the critical role in driving Pierre-luc Dubois out of Columbus. Dubois denies this. We may never know all the details of his denouement here. All we know is Dubois dogged it and he’s gone — and the team has been weakened at its spine.
Given: That “every coach has a shelf life,” as then-rangers GM Glen Sather said when he fired Tortorella in 2013; that Tortorella is in the seventh year of his tenure in Columbus; that the Jackets of late have reached said malodorous state; and that there has already been one coach fired already this season … well, who wouldn’t speculate?
“I don’t think anybody’s feeling good about how we’re playing right now,” Kekalainen said. “Our confidence level is low, for whatever reason. We can’t get out of our own zone. We can’t hang onto pucks. We can’t make a play. You start playing hockey to have the puck — and right now, everyone’s terrified to have the puck. We can’t give it away fast enough.”
Au contraire. They truly can give it away fast enough. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)
Kekalainen can see and he can smell. He can also count. Tortorella, prior to Sunday, was 217-149-47 (a winning percentage of .582) with the Jackets. He has led the team to the playoffs in each of the past four seasons. He has won two more playoff series than any of the previous eight coaches in team history.
Tortorella is the best coach the Jackets have ever had, and it’s not even close. Is he done? He’s two years older than Julien (62 to 60), but he looks 10 years younger. And it’s not like he has suddenly lost it. He did the best coaching job in the league last season. Full stop.
(Quick aside: Say you think Tortorella ought to be fired; who do you turn to at this point?)
“We’re definitely underperforming,” Kekalainen said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that in anybody’s mind. When you struggle, you stay together and get through it. You take the credit together, you take the heat together and you snap out of it together.”
If all coaches have shelf lives, which they do, and Tortorella is the fourthlongest tenured coach in the league, which he is, and the team has been swooning, which it has, then speculation is fair game.
Ultimately, the decision is in the players’ hands — and here, I am referring to those on the high end of the pay scale, the foundational athletes. They will snap out of it, or they won’t, and they will remove all speculation either way.
marace@dispatch.com