Covid 19 Updates

Covid 19 updates

Revital Health and Wellness Clinics hopes this message finds you well. We would like to send out some information regarding the Covid19 pandemic and how we plan to operate.
Because our clinic is less of a primary care/urgent care office and more of a “wellness” clinic we do not see the normal influx of sick people during this part of the year. This greatly reduces our risk of spreading viruses of any kind , including Covid-19 Many businesses, especially medical offices, are trying to find the best balance between providing quality services for their customers/patients while also being safe and not putting staff or patients at unnecessary risks

With this in mind we have decided on the following to be safe:

– if you are sick, feel sick, or have been around someone ill within the past 7 days please contact us over the phone for guidance before coming into the office for a visit.
– we will be offering Covid-19 and Flu testing at our office though we will be implementing safety precautions during the testing process to help reduce the spread of the virus
– those patients 60 years and older and unvaccinated we highly recommend you consider utilizing tele-health services* (when available) during times of high spread/high case counts. This information can be found on https://covidactnow.org
– patients of any age or vaccination status who are concerned about exposure to Covid-19 are always welcome to consider telehealth services (when available for your visit reason). You will need high speed internet and/or phone service. For those taking injections this would involve giving yourself an injection at home.
* For those using insurance for their treatment with us- Tele-health services means seeing their health care provider over the phone or internet instead of coming into the office. Beginning mid-March 2020 Blue Cross Blue Shield and other insurance providers began to expand access to tele-health services, meaning that you could have your visit with us over a tele-health platform; we use Spruce. For now you can expect your normal payment, which you will make over the phone. The tele-health rules prior to this outbreak were much more strict and would only allow certain scenarios where tele-health was covered, if at all.

Extra safety precautions outlined below:

  • social distancing of 6 feet will be recommended during periods of high virus transmission 
  • Surgical masks (or better) recommended. Cloth masks are largely ineffective. 
  • If more than 3 patients in the waiting room we will ask you to either wait in an exam room OR if we have met our capacity we will ask that patients wait in their car until a room is available.
  • Common areas and patient rooms will be disinfected with disinfectant wipes and spray regularly and between patients.
  • staff will be washing and utilizing hand sanitizer more frequently than before and certainly between patient encounters

Last thoughts:

While we don’t want to be cavalier about the Covid-19 pandemic we do want to give the facts regarding the pandemic and allow people to make informed decisions.
First and foremost, Revital Health Clinics recommends vaccination for most adults though we do not believe in forcing or government mandating of Covid-19 vaccination. (Decisions by private corporations or businesses to require vaccination in order to utilize their services is a separate issue and we support individuals and businesses private property rights.) The decision to vaccinate for Covid-19 should be consenting and made in collaboration with you and your personal medical provider.
Based upon the evidence available to date (as of 1/23/22), the risks of serious adverse reactions and/or death from the Covid vaccines appear to be much smaller than the risks of having a serious complication and/or death from contracting the Covid-19 virus. These risk calculations are not straightforward and are largely impacted when factoring in age and health status (obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc).

For instance, you can see here- (https://www.statista.com/statistics/1191568/reported-deaths-from-covid-by-age-us/) the number of Covid-19 deaths by age group. It is clear from looking at the graph that starting around age 50 the risk of death from Covid-19 begins to more than quadruple from the previous age range of 40-49 yrs old. These numbers show us that for 18-29 year olds in the United States there is a 0.0098% chance of dying from Covid-19. While it sounds like a very rare chance when you factor in there are an approximate 53 million 18-29 year olds in the United States we see that this means around 5200 deaths.

We can see from this table, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html, that the risk of death from Covid-19 (or its complications) becomes 4x higher for those in the 30-39 year old age group and 10x higher for those in 40-49 year old age group, when compared to the control group of 18-29 year olds. 

With this final graph, https://ourworldindata.org/mortality-risk-covid we can see that the CFR (case fatality rate- meaning of those persons who contract the Covid-19 virus how many of them will die because of it) has been less than 2% (near 1.3% of late) in the United States for the past year (Jan.2021 thru Jan.2022). This is not a trivial number as 2% of those infected are a lot of people. We are not meaning to downplay the severity of the pandemic in any way. We only want to give accurate information to help people make informed decisions. Towards the bottom of the above link you can see the differences in CFR for other deadly viruses. This virus is not the “seasonal flu” (Covid is more dangerous) but it’s also not ebola (far more dangerous). We do need to have a sense of proportion and understand the facts.

So with all of that in mind, let’s be safe. We recommend staying at home if you’re feeling sick or “under the weather”. Wash your hands. Avoid touching high traffic areas. Be mindful of touching your face (mouth, nose, eyes) when out in public. During periods of high virus transmission, wear a mask when going to indoor events with many people in small spaces. Get vaccinated.
***Also we must remember prevention. Hormone optimization when appropriate. Strengthen your immune system by eating real foods, limit stress, strive for a healthy weight, get good sleep, exercise in some form or fashion, drink good water, get outside, and enjoy friends, family, and other things that bring you joy.