Exposure therapy or systematic desensitization. As someone who has OCD running hard in my family, and who had phobias myself growing up, if not quite full-blown OCD myself, I’m well familiar, and it’s a time-tested method.
Good on you for helping her, and congrats to your daughter, both for overcoming her phobia and becoming a nurse!
Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think a “booster” shot is really that; it’s really just an additional vaccination intended to raise the immunity. I’m not sure it has anything to do with WHICH vaccine you got the first time.
Nobody’s ever asked me what sort of tetanus shot I got before, when I’ve received boosters. Nor for any of the others when I was a kid either. Nor for my children. About all I could think of is maybe the mRNA ones might require a booster from another mRNA vaccine, but I’m not sure that’s even the case.
There are mix-and-match trials happening now, which started months ago, for mixing in getting the two doses. I believe they were just expanded. The belief is that mixing should not be a problem, but they want to have proof positive, and effectiveness numbers.
I don’t know what the proper terminology is either, but on the news they described it as a booster shot. Maybe they’re wrong, who knows. It’s all still so new.
Thanks, interesting! My wife made a joke that with all these vaccines (plus a yearly flu vaccine) it might cause one’s DNA to mutate. I said hey, maybe I’ll get superpowers! Though immunity to Covid would be enough of a superpower for me.
That is very interesting. I would not have thought that exposure like that would have worked for needle phobia. TIL!
A booster inoculation is one that reinforces the original immune response against the targeted pathogen; for instance, in a particularly long influenza season a booster is occasionally recommended, especially for health professionals and other people who might be regularly exposed. Whether you can mix and match SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to boost immune response is unknown (there are some ongoing studies) but when the news is talking about ‘boosters’ they aren’t really clear on the distinction between an actual booster and a modified or new vaccine intended to protect against a variant that is able to evade the immune response provided by the original vaccines (e.g. a strain). I’ve heard a couple of immunologists deriding the use of the terms “booster” and “strain” as essentially “garbage terms” because they have become so misused in common reporting that they are essentially meaningless.
There hasn’t been enough time to determine the difference in terms of immunogenicity between the different vaccines and how long they provide good immune response, but it is clear that there is considerable variation within populations and with respect to different variants of the virus. The common understanding that a vaccine prevents infection is certainly being challenged by this contagion but it is difficult for media, who themselves are generally not conversant in virology and immunology (and even just basic science), to convey the nuances of this to the general public.
Stranger
I took things very slowly. We were having these chats fairly frequently and some nights we would never get near discussing needles, just discussing what it feels like to be afraid.
There are different kinds of needle-phobias, and some function differently from other phobias, being more of a physiological response that begets a psychological aversion, rather than the more common psychological aversion that begets a physiological response. I don’t want to go into too much details, except to say that I’ve done some work to try to desensitize myself, and was pretty disappointed to learn how little it had all worked. The physiological response, AFAICT, is a lot less amenable to desensitization techniques.
If only humans had some kind of natural defense system that would kick in after (pick a number) vaccinations.
Maybe we need to get some ex-KGB agents to help out.
They were experts at injecting someone without them even knowing. You could just go to the vaccination site, stand around, fill out some forms, and then someone says, “You’re all good to go!”
What data are they looking at here? I’m not aware of any studies that have shown waning protection over time from either vaccines or natural infections. Cynically, the CEO of Pfizer has slightly different incentives here than the general population.
I was trying to find the article I read. If I remember correctly all or most of the vaccine manufacturers are going to raise their price after the pandemic is considered over. Something like late summer.
Found it. Cite
That sounds way better than my “try heroin” plan.
Just make sure you get the white heroin, you can snort that. Get the brown heroin and you are not going to like the delivery system.
If you don’t mind talking about it, was your second shot worse than the first or did you have that much trouble both times? Were the circumstances different? Once you blacked out, what did they do with you? Do they just prop you up in a chair, lay you on the floor…
They now have and are working on treatments/meds to help someone with COVID get over it sooner/less severe, so even if you don’t get a booster there is still help.
They are testing this with the 1st and 2nd shots of Physer and Moderna and it is showing promise.
How do you think vaccines work? That’s exactly what we have. We just aren’t yet entirely certain about what the needed number is.
My husband’s specialty is treating OCD/tic disorders and phobias. It’s hilarious the things he gets to charge to his business account. Stuffed spiders, pens that look like syringes and fake vomit. He says he won’t ask anyone to do something he wouldn’t be willing to do himself. I asked him the grossest thing he’s had to do and he said he once licked the bottom of his own shoe. But he’s gotten off pretty easy so far.
Anyway, what @kayaker did with her daughter is textbook graduated exposure. Well done.
Moderna investors will soon be rich enough to buy the entire US twice.
Good luck with that. With a current market cap of 68 billion, they aren’t even rich enough to buy Bill Gates, with or without his microchip factory.
Hubs isn’t afraid of needles and has gotten more than a few tattoos. He has watched me get a piece of skin cancer cut out, then stitched up with no issues.
Penetrating shots (much different than surface needles) knock him out almost as soon as the needle goes in. This used to embarrass him, but as he aged, he just got used to warning people what was going to happen so they wouldn’t freak out.
I have some sympathy for him, very inconvenient and all, but I have much more sympathy for you and admire you for getting both shots. You are a very brave person.