Health officer addresses questions about vaccine
‘ Vaccine hesitancy’ a concern as California preps for receipt of doses
OROVILLE » The first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine are expected to reach some Californians in just a few days, though questions remain about the prioritization beyond the first few essential groups, as well as the number of people who will choose not to get vaccinated.
The California Department of Health announced earlier in December that the state will receive 327,000 doses of the vaccine in its first shipment between Dec.12-15, though only 8,592 of those doses will be distributed in Region III, which includes Butte, Glenn, Tehama and 10 other Northern California counties.
Another 672,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected to be distributed statewide in the next few weeks. Health care
workers and long-term care residents will be among the top priorities. Beyond that, however, local jurisdictions are still awaiting guidance on further prioritizations and the timeline for distributing additional doses of the vaccine.
“Two apparently safe and effective vaccines are going to be released very shortly,” said Butte County Public Health Director Dr. Robert Bernstein. “Butte County is following CDPH, the CDPH is following (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), and the CDC is following the FDA and NIH guidelines on making decisions ethically and medically about the priorities for the distribution of those vaccines. At this point, we only have what you would call ‘ broad strokes’ understanding of what that is from the information that’s been released.
“Hopefully, by the early part of next year, ideally, but maybe more likely by spring of next year the entire eligible population will be covered.”
Another pressing issue, Bernstein said, is what’s known as “vaccine hesitancy,” either people declining some immunizations or refusing vaccines altogether — for themselves or their children.
In addition to late-stage trials for vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, which were reported to be nearly 95% effective against the virus, a third major company, AstraZeneca, reported 90% efficacy in late-stage trials, according to a Nov. 22 Associated Press story.
Despite those promising numbers, some still may decline to get vaccinated, perhaps due to their personal beliefs.
“Vaccine hesitancy is impacting
the routine, well-established, highly- effective and clearly safe vaccines that are available for children and adults,” Bernstein said. “That effort, that vaccine hesitancy effort, is very worrisome.
“There’s lots of thought that’s going into how to address this … (vaccine hesitancy) is really a sub-problem of limited literacy of health in the population. People don’t depend on reliable, accurate, credible
sources of information for their decision-making. They depend on conversations with their neighbor, conversations on social media. They don’t go to the websites for the CDC, or NIH. … Health literacy, together with the result of vaccine hesitancy are huge problems that are going to impact the COVID-19 vaccine, no question about it.”
The process of creating and delivering COVID-19 vaccines, which the Department of Health and Human Services called “Operation Warp Speed,” Bernstein noted, still went through the necessary stages of testing, assuring safety and efficacy.
“The way that the vaccines work, in layman’s terms … the biological system of the person that’s been vaccinated, by alerting them to be able to recognize a respiratory infection with the COVID-19 virus, the human who’s been vaccinated is prepared immunologically
with cells that will disable the virus that’s trying to attack them.”
As with nearly any vaccine, a person may feel generalized symptoms of fever or malaise after getting vaccinated, Bernstein said. It will also be necessary to receive two doses of the vaccine to be fully protected.
“The evidence so far in the Moderna and Pfizer trials that have been released suggest that there’s nothing more concerning than those mild, temporary reactions,” Bernstein said. “But that might dissuade somebody — if they had a more severe reaction — from getting the second vaccination and therefore they might not be as fully protected.”
Upon receiving vaccinations, some may believe that the COVID-19 pandemic is effectively over. However, health officials, including the state and Butte County public health departments, said it will be a much more gradual process, and many of the same health guidelines, such as physical distancing, wearing face coverings and washing hands often, will still be recommended.
“Until we have, convincingly, ‘ herd immunity,’ it’s going to be still important for people to use non-pharmaceutical measures,” Bernstein said. “And especially if we don’t get high levels of coverage with two vaccinations in the population, transmission is going to continue.”