Residents who got fully vaccinated weigh in
In Connecticut, nearly 560,000 people were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Friday, representing about 15.7% of the state’s total population. Eligibility for those ages 45 to 54 began Friday, and come April 5, anyone over 16 will be eligible.
With more and more people able to decide whether to get the vaccine, we wanted to share the perspectives of those in southeastern Connecticut who are fully vaccinated. The Day put out a survey in late February looking to speak with those who had gotten both doses, and did follow-up phone
“I think it’s been very interesting to be on the other side and see all the things that you put in place. We wrote studies and protocols and things, and you instruct sites on how to do things, but to see it actually carried out is pretty amazing.” DIANE HESSINGER OF NIANTIC, 57, WHO GOT BOTH DOSES IN SEPTEMBER AS PART OF PFIZER’S CLINICAL TRIAL. SHE WORKED IN LARGE CLINICAL TRIAL RESEARCH AT PFIZER FOR 34 YEARS.
interviews with 22 people.
While scheduling hassles and side effects varied, a few trends emerged: There was a lot of praise for the friendliness and efficiency of vaccine administrators, multiple people didn’t even feel the needle, and being fully vaccinated doesn’t mean people are throwing caution to the wind.
Diane Hessinger of Niantic was one of the first in the region to get vaccinated: She was part of Pfizer’s clinical trial and got both doses in September. She worked in large clinical trial research at Pfizer for 34 years, retiring two years ago.
“I think it’s been very interesting to be on the other side and see all the things that you put in place,” said Hessinger, 57. “We wrote studies and protocols and things, and you instruct sites on how to do things, but to see it actually carried out is pretty amazing.”
At Pfizer, she was used to directing questions to the Food and Drug Administration and waiting three months for a response, but she’s never seen data be reviewed as quickly as she has with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Based on her mild side effects — soreness in her arm and a headache after both doses — she assumed she got the vaccine, not the placebo. After the FDA granted emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine, Hessinger found out this was correct.
She’ll be monitored for two years; she just had her sixmonth follow-up this past Thursday. Hessinger updated her consent form, answered questions on her health status and got blood drawn, and her next visit is scheduled for September.
Side effects may vary — as does initial enthusiasm
Groton resident Carol Polifroni, 71, got her Moderna vaccine doses Jan. 6 and Feb. 4, but her side effects were so nonexistent she said if she was in the trial, she would have assumed she got the placebo.
The UConn School of Nursing professor said she heard hesitancy from family members who mistakenly thought the vaccine would alter their
DNA, but once she explained how mRNA vaccines worked, “they were all chomping at the bit.”
Mary Muto, 68, said all her friends “are chomping at the bit, because we can’t see each other.” The Waterford resident hopes that two weeks after everybody has the second shot, they can get together, and Muto also hasn’t seen her daughter since August. Muto got her second Pfizer dose this past week and said she was very tired the next day, so she stayed in bed all day with her cat, watching TV.
“It’s better than taking the dirt nap forever,” she said.
Knowing that side effects are often worse after the second dose, Waterford resident Melissa Calkins — a nurse at a dialysis clinic and nursing home — planned a sick day the day after her Pfizer second-dose appointment on Jan. 28. She ended up just feeling fatigued.
Calkins said she decided to get the vaccine “just seeing what the virus has done to people. It doesn’t have any rhyme or reason. It attacks people, it attacks different part of their systems. I’ve seen staff inundated with patients who
are intubated.”
JoAnn Main, a retired nurse living in Stonington, was hesitant at first because the vaccine was so new. But she felt more comfortable seeing past co-workers at Backus Hospital getting the vaccine and got her first shot Jan. 22. Now, she’s encouraging others to get the vaccine and helping those who are less computer-savvy book appointments.
Gales Ferry resident Cheryl West said at 76 and with plenty of medical problems, she wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible. She called the Pfizer shot “probably the most painless injection I’ve ever had” and said her arm was only a little sore after the second shot.
But Donna Blackman wasn’t so lucky. Blackman, who is 52 and works for the Department of Veterans Affairs, said she had no side effects from her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine but the second dose was “brutal” and she took three days off from work.
She said of the list of possible side effects, “I am an overachiever; I got all of them. Oh yeah, headache, fever, chills, nausea, you name it.” Still, she would get the vaccine again.
Like Blackman, Mystic resident Nino Pellegrino, 68, got vaccinated at the VA hospital in West Haven. A Navy veteran who lived in Italy during the 1973 cholera epidemic, was diagnosed with cancer three years ago and knows multiple people who died from COVID-19, Pellegrino said deciding to get the vaccine “was a no-brainer for me.”
“There’s no way I wanted to die yet; I have too much to live for,” Pellegrino said. He added of the vaccine, “I think everybody has to get it for (the pandemic) to stop.”
As common side effects for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, as well as tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever and nausea. Side effects are more common after the second dose, and doctors have said younger people may experience more serious effects because they have stronger immune systems.
Mixed reviews on scheduling, praise on clinics
Roger Davis said he got the shots because the Old Lyme Fire Department, of which he is a member, was trying to get everybody vaccinated. He called the process of scheduling his first dose through the Vaccine Administration Management System, or VAMS, “an act of Congress” but got his first appointment Jan. 16.
People over 75 who spoke to The Day in January shared mixed reviews on the ease of scheduling. Mystic resident Tom Kauffmann, 75, said last week he felt guilty how easy it was for him to schedule an appointment at Hartford HealthCare’s site on Stott Avenue in Norwich.
He said the staff there “couldn’t have been more courteous and helpful,” while Mystic resident Dee Ryans, 82, said everybody there “was absolutely amazing; it was very efficient.”
Old Lyme resident Bill Culotta wrote a letter to the editor praising the staff at Yale New Haven Health’s Mitchell College site for their professionalism and friendliness, while Niantic resident Hanna Cushman commented, “I can say both experiences were incredibly easy, pleasant, no after effects nothing. I’m 76 years old, too, so I know how to complain.”
Looking toward the future
Earlier this month, the CDC released guidance saying fully vaccinated people can “visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing” and visit indoors with unvaccinated but low-risk people from a single household.
Some people who are fully vaccinated haven’t changed their lifestyle at all, but others are taking small steps.
Bill Donovan of Waterford said because of his age and health — 79, and with Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure — he “had to be extremely cautious during the past year.” But now that he’s fully vaccinated, he’s starting to get back into his routine, such as visiting with his five grandchildren and going to the gym.
“I felt like I got a new lease on life when I got my second shot,” he said.
Dana Semeraro of Mystic said she and her husband aren’t ready to eat inside a restaurant yet, but she did visit her fully vaccinated sister in New York City, going to an exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, where there was also a violin and cello concert in the atrium.
“It was an adventure, and it was more than I’ve been doing in over a year,” she said with a laugh.
Stonington resident John Dreslin, 77, is the organist at Union Baptist Church in Mystic, and he said as more people get vaccinated, in-person attendance has started to pick up.
“We’ve been encouraging each other, trying to spread the word and helping each other, telling them where they can most effectively sign onto the vaccine sites to get their shots done, and we’re anxious to get as many vaccinated as possible,” he said.
North Stonington resident Stella Neves Elbaum, who experienced a sore arm and a little bit of tiredness from her second Moderna shot, said she hadn’t seen her grandkids in a year. But her daughter and grandkids came down from Somerville, Mass., last weekend.
“That was just wonderful, just to have the physical (contact), be able to hug each other; we all need that,” she said. “Our daughter started to cry. It’s just been a long year.”