St John Ambulance Report -10 February 2022

What is Viral Load?

I don’t think in the last two years doing the little newspaper article that I’ve mentioned Covid more than a couple of times. There is so much information out there that I guess I thought this could be a respite, if you will, from all the information that has been going around. I like to think I have a fair understanding of Covid, the way it works and what it does, but I have been reticent to approach the subject in this little newspaper article.

The amount of information out there about Covid is staggering, whichever side of the fence you sit, you’ll be able to make a somewhat cohesive argument supporting your point of view. And that’s great, discussion and healthy dialogue are an essential part of a working society. It is when we don’t stop to listen to others, when the views and opinions of our neighbours become redundant that society is most often left wanting.

So, what is ‘Viral Load’? Pretty simply it is the amount of any virus you have floating around your system. The aim of a vaccine is to minimise the amount of the virus associated with the vaccine in your blood stream should you encounter the virus. The science behind it all is staggering, our bodies are amazing.

The Covid vaccine aims to reduce the build-up of the Covid virus in our systems, when we come into contact with the virus. In a perfect world the vaccine would be 100 percent effective, and life would continue unabated, Covid would slip away from our current lexicon as have Polio and Typhoid (largely). What the Covid vaccine has been shown to do effectively is reduce the amount of time your body has peak viral load, the time in which your system is dealing the largest amount of virus in your bloodstream.

If you think of it simplistically, viral load is like oranges in a wheelbarrow. The more oranges in your wheelbarrow (peak viral load), the more likely you are to drop an orange (or shed virus). The older you are, the weaker your body is, the less likely you are to cope with a wheelbarrow full of oranges, if you hit a bump in the path, you might lose them all. We are all different, some of us like vegemite, some of us marmalade (orange of course), what is important is that we can all sit around the breakfast table, eat out toast and talk.

St John are still training, though remotely and still here 24 hours a day, seven days a week to help you when you need it most.

If you are interested in becoming a St John volunteer or, for more information, please email norfolk.island@stjohnnsw.com.au or james.garden@stjohnnsw.com.au