UKC

I'm interested in hearing thoughts about how the Covid vaccination might affect performance at altitude. 

Context is I'm currently unvaccinated and am joining (hopefully) an expedition to climb Ama Dablam in November. 

If anyone has been vaccinated and has subsequently been to altitude it would be great to hear your thoughts.

More out of curiosity than anything. Not interested in hearing the for and against getting vaccinated. 

TIA

In reply to JayW:

Shouldn't you be more worried about getting Covid and the effects it would have on prep or if you got it while at altitude? (not to mention having to cancel if you get it just before leaving)

In reply to JayW:

A friend  summitted Ama Dablam about a month after his first AstraZeneca shot. He felt as strong at altitude as ever. 

In reply to JayW:

Is there any plausible reason/mechanism to suspect vaccination could have any kind of impact on performance at altitude? Beyond a few days of possibly feeling a bit under the weather immediately afterwards, I don't see any reason to even consider the question. Happy to be corrected though.

If it was having any significant impact on sport performance in general, I expect we would have heard by now. Especially with all the talk about Covid and vaccines in relation to the Olympics. So any link would have to be altitude specific, which seems unlikely.

In reply to JayW:

Won't you need a bunch of vaccinations for that traveling? add it to the list and get it done. Odd that you ask about that and not hepA, hepB, tet, dip, typhoid etc.

Is this post serious?

In reply to Luke90:

Non in particular but that is the reason why I asked. The rollout of the vaccine is still in its early stages but I would say there have now been enough people that have gone away on expeditions to the higher mountains to see if it does have any impact. 

Yes on your point re the Olympics - though Tokyo is obviously not at altitude. 

In reply to CantClimbTom:

Yes it's a serious question. I would have thought any altitude related implications of taking the other vaccinations that you mentioned would have been well documented/known by now. That is not the case with the C19 vaccine.  

In reply to DubyaJamesDubya:

Could still catch it with the vaccine...either way you could catch it, but why put life on hold? Be safe and sensible and its all good 

In reply to JayW:

Numerous people, including myself, various vaccines, no issues. Have a good trip.

In reply to Juicymite86:

Except that those vaccinated have massively lower possibility of being hospitalised.

In reply to JayW:

I don't see how someone else's experience at altitude after inoculation helps whatsoever.

Sure, you may get 20 people on UKC coming forward giving their experience.

Statistically that means absolutely nothing in terms of a relationship of any degree between inoculation and altitude, it means absolutely nothing that you can meaningfully extrapolate to your future experience.

How would you propose to be sure of the impact of inoculation on altitude in any individual as opposed to all the other factors that affect altitude performance? 

 

In reply to JayW:  I'll bet long term lung damage from COVID (proven effect) will have a damn sight more impact than speculative effects from vaccines.

In reply to JayW:

There's highly unlikely to be any data on this, and anecdotes are pretty useless. I can't think of a physiological reason unless you have one of the very rare side effects. 

What you can say is that it's highly likely that covid would affect your performance at altitude, given it affects gas transfer in the lungs, as well as effects with blood clotting. Vaccination rates in that area of the world are low, and testing is patchy, so you stand a significant risk of picking up covid on your trip. At altitude it could be a major problem,and healthcare isn't great. That would be my main worry to be honest. 

In reply to JayW

Are you planning to travel unvaccinated to Nepal?