Nedra and I have been in self-quarantine at Indiana University’s retirement community where we settled in November of 2019. The lockdown, if I may call it that, began in mid-March and continues until the President or Governor calls an end to staying at home as a health precaution during the pandemic of 2020.
I consider myself extroverted and certainly my students think I am extremely extroverted because who else would stand before 500 students and share the pleasures of learning science? As a child, however, I was insecure, terrified of being called on in class, and would hide my head behind the person in front of me so I wouldn’t be called on.
I like being with people, but I also like times of solitude. I learned to appreciate solitude when I read Michel de Montaigne’s essays. On his estate he had a silo constructed not to store grain but to have his books in a circular library that lined the structure’s lumen. He had his desk and writing supplies and would seclude himself to write his essays and read his treasured collection of books, most of them reflecting the civilizations of Greece and Rome.
I also appreciated novels about solitude, like Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and how Edmond Dantès spent his years in prison before his escape. Or Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and how the title character had to reinvent the skills of survival as a shipwrecked sailor. I also enjoyed reading Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, his journal of his self-imposed solitude in the woods and a lake near his home in Massachusetts.
Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle is another masterpiece of writing during a round-the-world trip using his cramped shipboard quarters as a place to write from his field notes and away from contact with his scientific colleagues and friends in England.
In February, before we were forced into solitude, we read for our monthly book discussion group Amor Towle’s The Gentleman in Moscow, a novel about a Russian leisure class survivor of the Revolution who was under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel for some 20 years and who managed to fill his life with adventures and the mental treasures of civilization.
The hard part is not seeing our children and grandchildren except through Zoom or reading their comments on Facebook and seeing pictures they send. The easy part is using the time to write. Since the quarantine I submitted the galleys for a book in production, signed a contract for a second book, and got my editor to agree to look at ten works I had abandoned over the years when I was too busy teaching and doing research to complete novels, scholarly books, and other writings.
I am sending her a summary of each of these ten books and at age 88 I am in a race with the Grim Reaper to see how many of them I can get published before the scythe is swiped. While this sounds morbid, I am a realist and my life is so filled with the pleasures of living and having enjoyed so much mentoring with my students and solitude with my creative works, that I have no fears or terrors of the Reaper winning the race.
Elof Axel Carlson is a distinguished teaching professor emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University.
Everybody knows that chicken soup is the ultimate comfort food, the ultimate panacea for those times when the body and soul need pure nourishment. I wish I could tell you that chicken soup willprevent you from contracting the coronavirus. It won’t. I wish I could tell you that if you do get it, it will cure you. It won’t. All I can tell you is that cooking it, storing it in the fridge or freezer to have on hand and warm up, sipping and savoring it, sending some to a sick family member, friend or neighbor will make you feel better.
And when your soup is done and you’ve picked all the meat from the bones, even after you’ve saved big chunks of it for the soup, there are so many things you can use the remaining chicken for. My favorite is a chicken chowder, just another kind of chicken soup, really, with a creamy base. So wash your hands for 20 seconds, make a vat of chicken soup, practice social distancing and stay safe and well.
Chicken Soup
Chicken Soup
YIELD: Makes 3 quarts
INGREDIENTS:
One 3 1/2 to 4 pound chicken
1 large onion, halved but not peeled
2 carrots, peeledand chopped
2 to 3 celery ribs with leaves
1 sprig fresh dill
1 parsnip, peeled and coarsely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 quarts water
6 to 8 carrots, peeled and cut into thirds
DIRECTIONS:
In a large stockpot, combine first 8 ingredients. Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil, then partially cover and simmer so liquid is barely bubbling. Cook until meat falls from bone and bones separate, about two hours. With slotted spoon remove meat and bones, place in large bowl and set aside. Into another large pot or bowl strain liquid, pressing all solids to extract as much juice as possible.
Adjust seasoning, if necessary. Transfer liquid to container(s), cover tightly and refrigerate or freeze. Pull meat away from bones; discard skin, bones and gristle. Place meat in separate container(s), cover and refrigerate or freeze; once it is chilled, skim any hardened fat from top of liquid, strain again.
One hour before serving, reheat broth, add the fresh carrots and cook, covered, over low heat. Serve with noodles or rice and some of the chicken meat, if desired. Reserve remaining broth and meat for other use or freeze in containers. Serve with noodles or rice.
Chicken Chowder
Chicken Chowder
YIELD: Makes 4 to 6 servings
INGREDIENTS:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 to 4 cups diced cooked chicken meat
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery ribs with leaves, finely chopped
1 large sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Coarse salt and pepper to taste
4 cups chicken stock
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
One-10-ounce package frozen corn
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
DIRECTIONS:
Place a large pot over medium – high heat; add two tablespoons of the butter and the oil. When butter is melted add chicken and stir frequently until it starts to brown, about 5 minutes; remove and set aside. Lower heat to medium; add onion, celery, thyme, bay leaf and salt and pepper; stir to coat with seasoning.Sauté, stirring once or twice, until veggies soften, about 5 minutes. Return chicken to pot; add stock, potatoes and corn, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove thyme and bay leaf and discard.
In a small saucepan; make a roux with remaining butter and flour. With the large pot still on simmer, stirring constantly with wire whisk, add milk, half and half and roux gradually to achieve thick smooth consistency. Serve immediately with oyster crackers or saltines and a tossed green salad.
This week’s shelter pet is Hokey Pokey,a four-month-old male domestic shorthair mix kitty. This resilient little guy was born in December with a deformed rear leg and tail. Hope for his survival was not high, as kittens born with deformities often have difficulty thriving. However, Hokey Pokey stayed strong, and he has shown what living life to the fullest means. This little fighter plays, snuggles, and behaves each day like he will not be defined by his disabilities, and who are we to argue?
Hokey Pokey will need to have his deformed leg amputated when he is old enough, and he will likely never have control over urination/defecation behavior but his spirit and grit is absolutely unbreakable. Hokey Pokey can live with any dogs, cats, or children; he just needs a home that will give him the love and special care that he needs to live a long and happy life.
*Due to the health risk presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, there will be limited public access to the shelter. If you are interested in meeting Hokey Pokey, please fill out an adoption application online. The Smithtown Animal & Adoption Shelter is located at 410 Middle Country Road, Smithtown. For more information, call 631-360-7575.
COVID-19, a strain of the coronavirus, is now a pandemic. I have been barraged with questions from patients, neighbors and friends. They are right to be asking questions, because there is not enough information being circulated about how to protect yourself and your family.
Key elements
The key weapons we have in this fight against COVID-19 are containment and mitigation. A lot has been shared about containment by the Centers for Disease Control. Containment is reducing the incidence of new cases to a goal of zero, thus flattening the prevalence curve so this virus is no longer infecting anyone. This requires social distancing, hand washing for at least 20 seconds, surface cleaning, and avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth (1). If you have not already, I encourage you to review the guidelines at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus.
There is less information being provided about how we can minimize the severity of the disease if we are infected. This is mitigation. Mitigation is about preparing ourselves, so we experience an asymptomatic or a mild form.
Who is most at risk?
According to a study focusing on Wuhan, China findings, people most at risk are those who have chronic diseases, with high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease being the three most common (2). Also at risk are those who are “older,” that is 60 years or older, for they are more likely to have weakened immune systems and increased inflammation.
Managing your immune response
Ultimately, the goal is to have a healthy, appropriate immune system response. If the immune system “under-responds,” the virus’s symptoms will be more severe. Another term for this is immunocompromised.
If the immune system is overstimulated, your white blood cells are more likely to attack healthy tissue and cause further damage, exacerbating the situation. This sometimes happens after a heart attack, where the immune response is overzealous, targets healthy tissue and causes dysfunction in the heart. This process is called remodeling.
The goal is to create a healthy/strengthened immune system — not to boost and not to suppress the immune system. You want the “Goldilocks” of immune responses: not too little, not too much, but just right.
What can be done?
The best methodology here is to lean on what I call the four pillars of lifestyle modification: diet, exercise, stress management, and sleep.
Diet.By implementing a nutrient-dense, whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet or, more specifically, what I call a “Low Inflammatory Foods Everyday (LIFE) diet,” you can rapidly improve or even reverse these chronic diseases, decrease inflammation and strengthen your immune system, which will decrease your chances of dying from the virus.
The Lancet study referenced above found that inflammation and a weakened immune system were central to determining how people will do on entering the hospital.
What I’ve found with the LIFE diet in my practice is that people have white blood cells that are on the low end of the scale, between 2.5-4.5, rather than in the middle or upper range of 6.0-10.8. Typically, my patients’ white blood cells when they get sick stay within the normal range of 3.4-10.8. In fact., I had a patient who recently got a cold virus: their white blood cells were 3.4 before they got sick, and they rose to only 7.8, well within the normal range. This resulted in a targeted response with recovery in a very short time period.
For those with healthy immune systems, if they do get the coronavirus, their response will be more likely targeted instead of a disproportionately large response that starts killing the virus but also the healthy tissue in the lungs, leading to increased inflammation and fluid build-up in the lungs. Dr Fauci has warned this could potentially happen – what is called a cytokine storm – although the chances are very small. Ultimately, the immune system in these situations contributes to the problem, instead of helping.
So, what can you do to incorporate LIFE diet habits into your daily routine?
Focus on fresh and frozen fruits, vegetables and legumes. This is very important. With vegetables, the focus should be on dark green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, bok choy, kale, broccoli and cauliflower, as well as mushrooms. More is better. You cannot have too much. For fruits, apples have shown to play an important role in lung health, and all types of berries have high anti-inflammatory effects.
WFPB diets ultimately help with inflammation and immune strengthening and also support reduced stress and better sleep. The reason for these effects may have to do with the microbiome, the microbes living in your gut, which are an important determinant of how your immune system functions. Seventy percent of your immune cells are in your gut.
You can test for inflammation by looking at both white blood cell count and high sensitivity CRP (hsCRP). Beta carotene levels in the blood are a way to measure nutrient levels. I recently published a study that showed there is an inverse relationship between beta carotene in the blood and inflammation measured through hsCRP. This showed a 75 percent reduction in inflammation with higher beta carotene levels achieved through a plant-rich diet focusing on dark green leafy vegetables.
Interestingly, you don’t seem to achieve the same reduction in inflammation from vitamins or plant-based powders as you do by eating actual fruits and vegetables and legumes.
Stress management and exercise. Please, don’t panic. When you stress, your body releases cortisol, or internal steroids, that actually weaken the immune system and increase your risk of serious infection. Techniques to reduce your stress include exercise, yoga and meditation.
Mild to moderate exercise can be effective, such as a walk or jog outdoors or up and down the steps of your home. Just because the gyms may be closed in your area does not mean you can’t get exercise. It is spring, let’s take advantage of the weather, which will also help with mood and stress.
You can also exercise your lungs using an incentive spirometer. My personal favorite is the Triflo II version, but there are many on the market. I recommend taking 10 breaths using the incentive spirometer twice a day. This can help expand your lungs and keep the aveoli healthy and open. Aveoli exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules to and from the bloodstream.
Sleep. Exercise will also help with sleep, as will the LIFE diet. Getting enough quality sleep is important to strengthening the immune system. Quality, not quantity, is most crucial.
What if you are infected?
If you are infected, supportive care is most critical: stay hydrated; focus on foods with fluids in them to help with this, like fruits, vegetables, and low-salt vegetable-based soups; and sleep.
Importantly, stay away from NSAIDS. These are mostly over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen, naproxen and even aspirin, but can be prescriptions such as diclofenac. These suppress the immune system, thus making it more difficult for it to fight (3)(4). The mechanism of action for this suppression of the immune system is an anti-inflammatory effect that is different and detrimental, compared to the favorable anti-inflammatory effects of a WFPB diet such as the LIFE diet.
Instead, you want to reduce fever using acetaminophen, or Tylenol. This will not have any effects on inflammation, thus not interfering with the body’s immune system. If you can’t tolerate acetaminophen for fever, some alternatives may be elderflowers, catnip (which is a gentle choice for children), yarrow, white willow bark, echinacea, and lemon balm, although there is little data on their effectiveness.
Do not hesitate to go to the hospital if you have difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in your chest, new confusion or an inability to get up, or bluish lips or face. These are signs of potentially severe and life-threatening COVID-19 symptoms.
To sum it all up, chronic diseases and not managing those four lifestyle pillars are risk factors for dying from COVID-19. You can improve or reverse your chronic diseases, as well as strengthen your immune system and reduce inflammation through a plant-rich dark green leafy vegetable diet like the LIFE diet
References:
(1) cdc.gov/coronavirus. (2) Lancet. Published online March 9, 2020. (3) Lung. 2017;195(2):201-8. (4) Chest. 2011;139(2):387-94
Dr. David Dunaief is a speaker, author and local lifestyle medicine physician focusing on the integration of medicine, nutrition, fitness and stress management. For further information, visit www.medicalcompassmd.com.
Susan Wilk of Sound Beach sent in these gorgeous photos from her garden to share with our readers. She writes, ‘It’s a steller year for daffodils. Enjoy!’
Frequently clean household surfaces, especially high-touch surfaces such as handles, doorknobs, appliances, etc. Photo from METRO
By Susan V. Donelan, MD, FSHEA
Susan V. Donelan, MD, FSHEA
During the coronavirus pandemic, everyone has been trying to ready themselves and their households for a possible long stay at home. Stories abound about toilet paper and hand sanitizer shortages, not to mention water, milk and bread. Even ice cream is in short supply.
To be well prepared, experts recommend having a two-week supply of food on hand, including pet food, plus a 90-day supply of prescription medications and a thermometer. Another part of prudent planning is to prepare for the possibility that a member of your household will become infected.
Your goal should be to prevent one family member’s exposure from becoming multiple exposures that spread the virus throughout your entire family. Here are some safe practices to take:
• The exposed person should wear a surgical mask, if available, to prevent airborne respiratory droplets from infecting others. If a surgical grade mask is not available, a homemade one should be used.
• Regardless of whether the exposed person is wearing a mask, other family members should stay at least six feet away from the exposed person. Those who must come in closer contact should also wear surgical masks when caring for their loved one.
• If possible, the exposed person should sleep alone in a separate bedroom and use a separate bathroom from the other members of the household.
• Common areas such as dens and kitchens should not be shared as long as the exposed person is infectious, if possible. Common surfaces should be regularly sanitized; commercial products are sufficient. Shared spaces should be well ventilated (e.g., keep windows open), when possible.
• Meals should be eaten in separate locations. If possible, create separate cooking and food storage locations for the infected family member. Use separate linen and eating utensils for your loved one. Dishes and utensils should be placed into the dishwasher and are safe to handle once the washing and drying cycles are completed. If a dishwasher is not available, wash dishes and utensils in hot, soapy water while wearing dishwashing gloves.
Photo from METRO
• Caring for someone with mild to moderate symptoms of coronavirus is similar to caring for someone with the flu. Give them supportive care, fluids, soups and over-the-counter cough medicines and pain relievers to ease symptoms. Have them take their temperature regularly.
• If someone at home with coronavirus begins to have chest pain, is unable to complete sentences due to breathlessness, has dusky skin, is unable to eat and drink, or has other concerning signs of getting worse, they should be brought to the local emergency department for further evaluation.
• Perform hand hygiene after any type of contact with your loved one. The exposed person should clean and disinfect surfaces daily that are frequently touched in the room where he or she is staying. They should also clean and disinfect their bathroom and toilet surface at least daily.
• Clean the person’s clothes, bed linens and bath and hand towels using regular laundry soap and water at the hottest permissible setting. Use a dryer if available. Use gloves when cleaning surfaces or handling clothes or linen soiled with body fluids.
• Healthy members of the household should frequently clean household surfaces, especially high-touch surfaces such as handles, doorknobs, appliances, etc.
Establish a communication link with your healthcare provider ahead of time, know where your closest hospital is, and have a checklist of emergency supplies if you need to take your loved one to the hospital. If they are so sick or weak that they can’t eat, drink or go to the bathroom, call a doctor.
Detailed guidance about caring for people at home is available from the World Health Organization website: www.who.int/publications-detail/home-care-for-patients-with-suspected-novel-coronavirus-(ncov)-infection-presenting-with-mild-symptoms-and-management-of-contacts
The best advice? Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Get rest, eat well and exercise however you can. Maintain social distancing. Pay close attention to hand hygiene, and keep your hands off of your face. We all have a role to play to stop the spread and protect each other during this global pandemic.
Susan V. Donelan, MD, FSHEA is Medical Director of the Healthcare Epidemiology Department and Assistant Professor, Infectious Diseases at Stony Brook Medicine.
Life as we know it has radically changed forever. Unfortunately, according to the experts we are not really sure what is before us. We know that unfortunately many more lives will become infected and many more lives will be lost due to this pandemic.
On some level it seems like the world has lost its way. Our national leadership consistently seems to blur the facts and the media continues to fuel hysteria and fear.
We need to take pause in the midst of the chaos and the fear. We need to express gratitude to those in public service, especially those who have the courage to stand up and lead us. We need to give thanks to the entire medical community that are risking their lives every day to keep us safe and healthy. We need to give thanks to our first responders, our EMS workers, and our law enforcement who are challenged every day as they attempt to keep us safe. Each of them is risking their personal health and safety on our behalf. We are blessed.
Unfortunately, at times it seems so much easier to focus on all the negativity, all of the fear, and lose sight of all of the goodness and all of the hope that is alive in our midst. Every day there are countless stories of ordinary people acting in heroic ways in the service of our community, in expressions of love and compassion for others. It would be refreshing if the news media celebrated a little more optimism and what ordinary people are doing during this time of national crisis.
Every day I am profoundly touched by what I see firsthand in our local community. Ordinary men and women anonymously engaged in random acts of kindness; countless strangers reminding us in simple ordinary ways what it really means to be a community. People reaching out and building bridges instead of walls; embracing their neighbors with a profound sense of concern and support.
As we navigate our way through these difficult days that probably will become difficult months, let us look at this time not as a burden but rather as an opportunity to become the best version of ourselves as we continue to reach out to the most vulnerable among us.
Let us try to remember that negativity and hysteria don’t change the facts; we are trying to live through the worst pandemic in our lifetime. Scaring people is not going to change the facts; constantly focusing on the negative is not going to change the facts. However, being a people of hope filled with positive energy is going to transform an unbearable situation into something we will all get through because we are a part of a community that cares, a community of balance, of compassion and of unconditional love.
This too will pass and, hopefully, we will all be better for it.
Fr. Pizzarelli, SMM, LCSW-R, ACSW, DCSW, is the director of Hope House Ministries in Port Jefferson.
In medicine, there is the concept of triage. Essentially, it is prioritization, the assignment of degrees of injury or illnesses that necessitates hard decisions. When resources are limited, and when the number of patients is staggering, medical teams often need to focus on who is in most dire straits. Beyond that, however even more morose, it is prioritizing patients that medical professionals believe can be saved and those who are more likely to die.
It is not a healthy subject to think long and hard about if you’re not on the front lines of fighting the virus. It is something doctors have learned to do in war zones and during great hardships.
If things do not go smoothly, and if hospitals don’t have the correct amount of resources, personal protective devices, hospital beds and ventilators, then once we reach the peak number of cases, that is where events could lead.
Photo from METRO
One of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) most recent and most controversial acts as of Friday, April 3, was to sign an executive order saying they would take necessary equipment like ventilators from hospitals upstate which have seen relatively few cases and transport them to the hospitals in the most need.
That is in itself a sort of triage, a step to prioritize who needs such medical items the most. To say some hospitals, such as Stony Brook University Hospital, which was cited by Cuomo as a coronavirus hot spot, need more resources is to say they will be the ones who will be keeping even more people from dying from the virus.
People are helping these hospital workers in any way they can. We have seen local businesses and business groups band together to offer food for hospital and EMS workers. We have seen local residents create masks and other personal protective equipment from cloth they had at home. Libraries have come together to 3D print necessary PPE in the form of face shields. We have seen so much good come from our North Shore and Suffolk County community.
But on the smaller end, with the people who are simply staying at home, we have to recognize just how much good that has done.
Cuomo recently stated they are hopeful we may be reaching the plateau in the number of cases New York is seeing. It won’t be the end of the issues. We will likely have to remain isolated for several more weeks, but the amount of good social distancing has done is evident. People simply staying at home, getting the exercise when they can and not shaking hands has likely prevented an even greater overload of New York’s medical systems.
Many people are feeling burdened with a sense they are doing nothing. They are out of work, and they have nothing on their plate. It’s a malaise that settles deep, and we should all be thinking of the people who did not have money at the start of this pandemic, and now have even less since being out of a job.
New York will have to grapple with that. We Long Islanders should not feel like we have simply wasted time in languishing at home. This is society in action, with many thousands of people making sacrifices for the whole. It’s a sort of triage of the self and of society, finding what is more important and focusing on that. We should focus on the people who mean most to us, our friends and family. We should focus on the people who are in the most need and attempt to reach them and offer whatever kind of support. And at the same time, we should focus on ourselves, rest and take some time to think. When this whole thing comes around, all that time we spent in our homes will not have been wasted. It will mean a society that has learned to care for others in a time of crisis.
With sports on hold during the pandemic, I would like to borrow from the sports channels and share a collection of sports memories.
The singing pitcher
My daughter was pitching against a heavily favored team. In the first inning, she walked in two runs. As the coach, I raced out to the mound to check on her. She was quietly singing a song to herself. I knew there was nothing I could say that would top whatever song was entertaining her. In the final play of the game, the batter hit a ground ball to her and she raced over to first base, where she placed the ball in the glove of her teammate, starting an unlikely victory celebration.
The basketball game where we almost covered the spread
Knowing from the standings that the basketball team I coached would struggle against a team that should have been in a different league, I told my team that if they kept the other team under 50 points and we scored 30, we would have a pizza party. At the end of the game, the other team scored 49 points. We had a chance, with one last shot, to reach 30. We didn’t make it, but the referees congratulated each player on our team for fighting till the end. If they only knew …
The stampede game
In Cooperstown, I coached a town team of 12-year-olds against a team aptly named the Stampede. Hoping to confuse their 6-foot tall hitters, I chose our softest throwing pitchers. It worked early, as they only scored one run in the first inning. In the second inning, my son hit a home run, giving us a 2-1 lead. We lost 11-4, but our players and their parents couldn’t have been happier, as we were the first team to score more than one run in an entire game and were also the first team the Stampede didn’t mercy.
Tough as nails
Even with a face mask on her softball helmet, the fastball that hit my daughter caused the mask to give her a bloody lip. The umpire said she could come out and return later. She refused help or attention and ran to first base. She stole second, third and home, and returned to the bench with a triumphant smile.
The tiny team that did
My daughter was on a vastly undersized volleyball team that made it to the finals against a team that, in warm ups, pummeled balls into the ground. With my daughter anchoring the back row, the other team became frustrated that their hard hits didn’t win points. They tried hitting at different angles and further away from the defense, crushing balls just out. When my daughter served the last five points for the win, I joined a collection of elated parents as we screamed and threw our arms in the air. I briefly turned my head to hide the tears of pride welling in my eyes.
The kid who was way ahead of his time
When my son was in pee wee ball, he watched a lot of baseballmy fault. He played shortstop in a station-to-station game, in which each player moved up one base, regardless of where the ball went and whether someone got out. With the bases loaded, a player hit a line drive to my son at shortstop. He caught the ball, ran to third to get the runner who was jogging home and tagged the runner who approached him. After his unassisted triple play, he jogged off the field and dropped the ball near the pitcher’s mound. I had to explain to him that he didn’t play that way yet, but that he would, and hopefully will again, soon.
COVID-19 has brought into focus just how a pandemic can cripple society on so many levels and how important vaccines are in our lives today. Developing a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 has become the “holy grail” of human medicine.
Vaccines are defined as a biological preparation of weakened or killed microorganisms, or portions of the DNA of these organisms (viruses, bacteria, or rickettsiae) to stimulate the immune system to prevent or ameliorate disease.
The word “vaccine” comes from the Latin, vacca, which means “cow”, because the first vaccine was actually derived from cowpox. Dr. Edward Jenner, an English physician that lived in the 1700’s, discovered that humans inoculated with the fluid from the blisters of cowpox helped prevent the development of smallpox. Since that time vaccines have been used to prevent disease, as well as the development of new vaccines to prevent or treat cancer.
How do vaccines work?
Puppies and kittens are born without an immune system. The protection they receive comes in the form of maternal antibodies (antibodies from the mother) in colostrum (the first milk from the mother). These antibodies are absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract into the newborn puppy or kitten and these maternal antibodies protect them for the first four weeks of life.
After the first four weeks of life the protection from maternal antibodies declines and they will have to develop their own immune system to fight infection. Unfortunately, there is a window (between the ages of four to eight weeks) from when a puppy or kitten gradually loses protection from maternal antibodies, BUT before their own immune system begins to develop and is able to start to fight infection. That is why veterinarians recommend keeping puppies and kittens away from other dogs and cats before they start the vaccinations. Many infections can be very serious (eg., parvo, distemper, rabies, feline leukemia, etc.) and possibly fatal if the kitten or puppy is exposed before they have adequate immunity to it.
The goal of vaccines is to administer them before our pets are exposed to the infection naturally but after the pet has the ability to use the vaccine. This means at an age where the puppy or kitten have lost a majority of the protection from their maternal antibodies yet old enough for their immune system to use the vaccine to fight infection (ideally between the ages of eight to nine weeks).
Administering vaccines before eight to nine weeks is controversial because maternal antibodies can interfere or inactivate the vaccine and the puppy or kitten will receive little (if any) protection. Don’t worry. There are established vaccination protocols for a pet of any age.
Remember during these difficult times to not forget about the health of our four-legged family members. Call your veterinarian’s office to make sure your dog or cat is up to date on their vaccines.
Dr. Kearns practices veterinary medicine from his Port Jefferson office and is pictured with his son Matthew and his dog Jasmine. Have a question for the vet? Email it to [email protected] and see his answer in an upcoming column
COVID-19 has brought into focus just how a pandemic can cripple society on so many levels and how important vaccines are in our lives today. Developing a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 has become the “holy grail” of human medicine.
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