Hello TAS Family and Friends,
We hope this message finds you doing exceptionally well!
There is quite a lot going on that should lead us all to be hopeful: better public health conditions, smoothing out the deployment of the COVID vaccines, schools’ re-opening safely, pleasant weather and hopefully an ever-improving economic/community outlook.
As we progress through these improved public health and economic conditions, we are eager to welcome more of our patients back into the office for in-person consultations, follow up and assessments. We have been extremely vigilant with our hygiene protocols and feel it is both safe and important to transition back to in-person evaluations. We will remain committed to our leading-edge telehealth platform, which we have used since 2017. Whether our patients and families prefer in-person or virtual assessments and health guidance, you will have a choice. We are here to support YOU. Just let us know how you are most comfortable.
COVID-19 VACCINES
Speaking of COVID vaccines, we are pleased that most of our high-risk patients have received their vaccines in a safe and timely manner.
We spent much of December and January pursuing a path to deliver COVID vaccines in our office. Navigating through county, state, public health agencies and bureaucracy simply wasn’t a reasonable continued expenditure of our precious time and expertise. In addition, vaccine supply and distribution inefficiencies made it imperative that we shift focus. In early February, we launched a dedicated program to create personalized plans with each patient regarding vaccine. This includes when, where, how, and with what system and staff. You’ll notice the one variable not discussed is which vaccine. With a disrupted supply system, it was not feasible to pick which vaccine is administered. ** To our knowledge, none of our patients have had a severe or life-threatening reaction to COVID-19 vaccination. By no means does this suggest we can let our guard down, but we feel reassured in our ability to advise our patients through the process of vaccine. We will continue to do this as qualifications for receiving the vaccine were dramatically changed last week.
Several families have asked us specifically about advice for COVID-19 vaccination for their teenagers. As Pfizer is the only vaccine currently approved for 16 and up, there is currently only one choice. Research is forthcoming in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s current trials studying the vaccine in children 12 years and older. These results will hopefully be available by summertime (~ July). We will try to guide you and your family with these important decisions.
SPRING 2021
If you haven’t felt it already, spring has SPRUNG!!! We have 100+ species in bloom and producing airborne pollen. There is a theory circulating that this spring may be harder on our immune systems, due to abnormal living conditions in the pandemic (masks, indoors, isolation, etc.). There is also concern of pollen driving increases in COVID-19 infections. The data isn’t perfect, but it certainly raises eyebrows, and makes us aware of the continued need to address respiratory allergens with all possible tools.
We feel well prepared to partner with you in these times.
In general, we are extremely hopeful that employing all the tools we have will lead to a very healthy and happy future.
Finally, we also would like to introduce you to our new website: www.theallergystation.com This project was originally slated for early 2020, but we got a little busy … with something else. We hope you will find this site bright, simple, helpful and easy to use.
We look forward to seeing and sharing health with you soon!
With deep respect and love,
Travis,
on behalf of The Allergy Station
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