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Hello everyone
I used to be a daily visitor to this site and was one of your first in treatment, 7 years later and basically forgot we ever had it, so a Huge Huge thank you to you Dr James.

My husband and I both work for NSW Health and are being mandated to take the vaccine, against our wishes. My husband was also cured of Hep C but has cirrhosis, it does not affect his daily life and he has no symptoms, is there a preferred Covid Vaccine for people with cirrhosis or would he be eligible for an exemption do you think?

Thank you

Hello Violet, welcome back to the forum! It's great to know that you and your husband have been cured and forgot that you ever had Hep C, that's awesome. I'm not sure if a specific vaccine is more suitable for people with liver cirrhosis because Dr James has answered a similar question and said that all approved Covid vaccines are not contradicted for them. You can read his post here . All the best to both of you.

Thank you soo much for your quick response Mar and love to everyone on this awesome site xx

Hi Violet,

Welcome back. Having cirrhosis is not an issue with respect to any of the vaccines.

Here's why an exemption is a bad idea. In Israel last week. Of the new severely ill Covid-19 patients, per 100,000 people:

Not vaccinated: 6.4
2 x vaccinated: 1.62
3 x vaccinated: 0.28

So if you are not vaccinated you are 4 x more likely to get severe disease than somebody who has had 2 doses. To date the 3 dose regime has only been given to the most vulnerable. Despite this, it still makes them 23x less likely to get severe disease.

I prefer those odds.

You may have noticed from the news that ~1000 NSW cases a day is coupled with ~10 deaths a day. So, in rough ballpark terms Covid-19 is 1:100 ie 1% fatal. While there is no such thing as a 100% safe vaccine rate the fatality rate from being vaccinated is in the order of 0.001% so, when you weigh up the risks...

Covid carries a 1:100 risk of a fatal outcome whereas the vaccines are 1:100,000.

Once vaccinated your risk of severe disease drops significantly, particularly with 3 doses.

We are all going to get Covid-19, it's only a question of when. When we get it the risk looks much better fully vaccinated.

Thanks Dr James
I've been very hesitant about the vaccine but knowing your opinion on the matter really helps. I have seen how you wont be played by the pharmaceutical companies and I trust what you think.

Actually, one more question, do you have a preference for one over the others for over 60 yr?

Hi Violet,

The Moderna vaccine available in Chemists is probably slightly better than Pfizer and probably easier to access. The main risks with mRNA vaccines are allergic reaction and myocarditis (almost all young people). The clotting risk with the AZ vaccine has been totally overblown in both the media and people's minds.

Looking at my family, different family members have had all 3.

For Pfizer and Moderna (both mRNA vaccines) the duration of protection appears to relate to how long you wait between doses. In line with expectations a longer delay between doses (ie 6 weeks) is better than 3 weeks.

This fits with what we see with pretty much every other vaccine. Yes you can rush the dose schedule (with going on holidays being the common reason back in pre-covid days). The consequence of rushing the schedule is that the protection is not quite as good or quite as long lasting.