Vaccinate the vulnerable to prevent severe disease and death – clinician

Every day, clinicians battle to save the lives of COVID-19 patients with severe disease in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

The ICUs are full and the wards are also full, said a clinician, declining to be named in view of the Health Ministry sending out instructions muzzling independent voices from the ground-level.

He said that they are still getting a lot of patients with bad pneumonia and even after they survive the “acute” phase, they are oxygen-dependent for about three weeks. There is also permanent damage to the lungs and in the long-term, these people would need frequent medical treatment like others with respiratory illnesses such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The clinician says that from among those seeking treatment for severe COVID19, about 5% have lung complications. So it is vital to prevent patients from going into COVID-19 pneumonia.

“We are seeing ‘bad’ COVID-19 induced pneumonia in this third wave, which we did not see in the first and second waves. Therefore, it is critical to vaccinate the most vulnerable people who will get severe disease. They are the elderly and those with co-morbidities,” he added.

When asked about treatment, this clinician said that a person with mild disease is monitored so that they can respond if that person goes into severe disease. While the monitoring is going on they provide a lot of nutrition, fluids and also Vitamins C and D. However, there is no proven benefit of these vitamins against COVID-19.

For those with severe disease, intravenous antibiotics, dexamethasone (a steroid) and blood thinning medications are administered, the doctor said, adding that when necessary they are also given oxygen.