FDA OKS Pfizer vaccine
Officials hope step leads to more vaccinations
With full approval of the Pfizer-biontech COVID-19 vaccine by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday, Connecticut officials say they hope some residents who have been hesitant about vaccination will now decide to get the shot.
“I think [approval] was the right move, and I think it gives people a little extra confidence that it is absolutely safe, as well as effective,” Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday. “The FDA has given it yet another stamp of approval. Now is the time to get your vaccine.”
The FDA announced Monday it had approved the vaccine for everyone 16 and older, eight months after granting it an emergency use authorization.
In a statement Monday afternoon, Lamont and interim commissioner of the Department of Public Health Dr. Deidre Gifford applauded the agency’s decision, which Gifford said “should further reassure those who decided to wait for the full FDA approval before being vaccinated.”
“Many Connecticut residents have well-founded reasons for questioning public health authorities,” Gifford said in the statement. “There have been too many times in the past when the medical system fell short. Despite those shortcomings, for the health and safety of all our communities, we are appealing to you now to trust the science, talk to your family and friends, and please get vaccinated.”
Connecticut continues to rank among the states with the highest rates of COVID-19 vaccination, with 83.3% of residents 12 and older — and 72.6% of the population as a whole — having received at least one shot. After slowing down earlier this summer, vaccination has increased in recent weeks, albeit modestly, as Connecticut has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations driven by the highly contagious delta variant.
Still, Connecticut is home to hundreds of thousands of residents who are eligible to be vaccinated but aren’t yet, whether due to fear of side effects, distrust in medical institutions or various other reasons.
Up to now, some who have expressed skepticism in COVID-19 vaccines have noted that they had not been fully approved by the FDA. Dr. Ajay Kumar, chief clinical officer at Hartford Healthcare, said he hopes the FDA’S announcement will change those people’s minds.
“Many of the individuals are waiting for FDA approval, and they’re going to be much more reassured now that the approval has been given,” Kumar said.
Others aren’t as sure. Dr. Jim Cardon, chief clinical integration officer at Hartford Healthcare, said earlier this month that people citing the vaccines’ lack of FDA approval may have been simply looking to reasons to justify their fear or skepticism.
“For some it might make a difference, but my guess is that … [people] sometimes glom onto something that makes [vaccine hesitance] seem more rational to the rest of us,” Cardon said. “In other words, ‘You’ll leave me alone if I tell you that I have something that seems credible.’ ”
According to recent survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau, more than half of unvaccinated Connecticut residents say they don’t trust the COVID-19 vaccines, and more than half also said they’re concerned about possible vaccine side effects.
“I think that what we’ve got to acknowledge is that there’s a fear factor, and it’s driven by lots of things,” Cardon said. “It could be things that we think don’t make sense because it’s not rational, but if you believe such a thing, that this vaccine is harmful in some way, is going to harm me or put my ability to have kids at risk, or all the other things you hear, that’s just scary.”