AAMC front-line workers get vaccine
Hospital has 975 doses; UM BWMC has inoculated about 400 staff members
The first staff members at Anne Arundel Medical Center received their COVID-19 vaccines Monday morning. The hospital’s Department of Medicine Chair, Dr. Barry Meisenberg, called the moment the beginning of the end.
AAMC, part of Luminis Health, has received 975 doses to inoculate its front-line workers against the coronavirus. The vaccine AAMC is currently using is the Pfizer version, which requires a second dose.
One of the first to get the vaccine was registered respiratory therapist Tywana Jackson. Her job is to help people breathe, a struggle for those who have COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The virus attacks people’s respiratory systems, sometimes requiring weeks on a machine that breathes for the patient.
Jackson said it was an honor to be among the first vaccinated and encourages others to do the same. President-elect Joe Biden received the vaccine, an inoculation broadcast across major news networks. Vice President Mike Pence did the same Friday.
“Show the families that we love them; we care about one another, we want to end this,” Jackson said.
The vaccine for COVID-19 being rolled out across the country results from decades of research and will hopefully usher in a
new era of better vaccines for viruses like the flu, hospital epidemiologist Dr. Mary Clance said. She also got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine Monday.
Moderna and Pfizer are the first companies to have a vaccine with messenger RNA approved for public use, Clance said. Moderna’s vaccine was approved Friday, with Pfizer’s approval about a week before. Moderna’s vaccine has shown 94.1% efficiency rates while Pfizer is at 95%. Shipments of both vaccines brought the state’s total to 191,075 doses.
More than 100,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine have begun shipping to Maryland, meaning the state will have enough doses to vaccinate about 90% of its front-line hospital workers by the end of the week, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday.
This week’s shipment, along with additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine, brings Maryland to 191,075 doses in total.
University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center began vaccinations Wednesday for its front-line workers. Since then, the hospital has given out about 400 doses, said Kevin Cservek, a BWMC hospital spokesperson.
In the past, vaccines have introduced a weak or inactive germ into a person’s body, building immunity and providing them with protection should they get the real thing, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Messenger RNA teaches cells how to make a protein, or a piece of a protein, which triggers an immune response. The use of mRNA has been studied for decades, Clance said. One challenge was that mRNA broke down when injected.
“The major breakthrough was actually being able to package the messenger RNA once it’s injected so that it gets to where it needs to go,” she said.
That is being done in a nanoparticle smaller than the eye can see. People should trust the vaccine because it is the result of many decades of research, she said.
“Advanced technologies have made this possible,” she said. “It makes me feel a lot better anyway, and I think this is the template for better influenza vaccines in the future, better ‘other’ vaccines in the future.”
Meisenberg said the virus’ ability to spread would diminish as more and more are vaccinated.
“We will start to see the number of people affected by this drop dramatically. And that’s a process that will take several months. But today, we began that process,” he said.
It is unclear when the general population will receive either vaccine as federal and state officials figure out how to dole out the virus.
Health care workers and nursing home residents and employees are at the front of the line due to their risk of death from COVID-19 or their risk for exposure. The virus is most deadly in older residents with nursing homes, assisted living centers and group homes accounting for more than 2,600 deaths statewide, about half of Maryland’s total deaths.