What do girls’ parents need to know about vaccine, fertility?
Each week, Chronicle health reporters field questions about the latest on COVID-19, vaccines and pandemic living. In this week’s COVID Help Desk, we detail the latest in vaccine safety, what you should know about President Joe Biden’s new vaccine rules, and how to differentiate between COVID and other seasonal ailments.
What do parents of girls need to know about the vaccine?
Days after the Pfizer vaccine became available for adolescents, Dr. Kawsar Talaat rushed her 15-year-old daughter to their neighborhood clinic for the teen’s first shot. As a lead vaccine researcher at Johns Hopkins, Talaat was confident in the vaccine’s safety.
But according to health care providers, some parents are concerned the COVID vaccine may adversely affect girls’ fertility or menstruation — a fear that appears to have stemmed from online misinformation and that experts say is wholly unfounded.
“There is no evidence that the vaccine affects fertility,”
Talaat said.
Prominent anti-vaccine advocate and feminist writer Naomi Wolf was banned from Twitter in June for promoting vaccine falsehoods and for peddling, as NPR reported, “misinformation in question form: Can vaccines cause infertility? Miscarriages?” Soon after, false click-bait articles began circulating on the topic.
“Decades of experience” have shown girls can safely be inoculated against diseases such as HPV, influenza and tetanus, and “there is nothing to suggest that COVID is any different,”
said Dr. Mark Turrentine, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital.
Of the more than 160,000 pregnant women who have already received the vaccine, there is “no scientific or plausible evidence” of any effect on a person’s fertility or future fertility, Turrentine said. Additionally, toxicology studies have also shown no developmental or birth defects stemming from the vaccine.
Parents should refer questions about vaccine safety to their health care providers, not “Dr. Google,” he said, adding, “there is a lot of stuff on social media not founded in evidence.”
How do you tell the difference between seasonal allergies, flu, the common cold and COVID-19?
Houston is recording a heavy pollen count — and ragweed season is to blame.
The onset of autumn allergy season has sent patients flocking to nurse practitioners such as Grace Akinbobola, who may see dozens of people daily at the CVS Minute Clinics where she works. Many arrive with a flurry of symptoms, and it is up to Akinbobola to determine whether the cause is seasonal allergies — or something more sinister.
Fever is one way to distinguish seasonal allergies from influenza, the common cold and COVID-19.
A high temperature is likely to indicate a flu or COVID infection, Akinbobola said, while a lowgrade fever may point to the common cold. Anyone suffering from ragweed or mold allergies is unlikely to have a fever, she said.
The timeline of an illness can also be a clue.
Flu infections typically arrive with “very sudden and very harsh” body aches, chills, headaches and fatigue, the nurse practitioner said. The onset of COVID can be sudden or gradual, and is sometimes accompanied by the telltale loss of taste or smell.
“It is important to get tested right away,” Akinbobola said.
Doctors predict an intense flu season this year, expected to hit Houston hard by early November. Flu vaccination efforts are already ramping up.
Quick tests can diagnose flu, allergies, COVID and strep throat. All are available at neighborhood CVS Minute Clinics, which take appointments and walk-ins.
When will the Biden administration’s new vaccine rules take effect?
President Biden last month announced sweeping measures that require COVID-19 vaccines for hospitals and other large employers aimed at boosting vaccination rates among the quarter of eligible Americans who have yet to get the jab.
The new rules will affect more than 80 million workers nationwide.
But no timeline has been set for the mandates, which are still being crafted by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.
After a period of deliberation, the agency will issue new guidelines using an emergency order, according to President Biden’s COVID Action Plan. The guidelines will apply to all employers with 100 or more employees, and are expected to provide businesses with a roadmap for reaching full vaccination.
In its forthcoming guidelines, OSHA is expected to address issues such as how contract workers will be counted, weekly testing for those who refuse vaccination and paid time off for workers to recuperate post-vaccine.