COVID vaccines arriving in Berks hospitals.
Employees who work closest with COVID patients will get them first
Berks County hospitals expect to receive their first COVID-19 vaccines on Thursday to give to their workers on the frontlines of the pandemic, but it will likely be months until those vaccines are available to the public.
That information was shared Wednesday during an online panel discussion between local health officials and the Berks County commissioners in which the doctors urged people to keep taking precautions to avoid getting the virus or spreading it.
Reading Hospital and Penn State Health St. Joseph hospital officials said the first Pfizer vaccines should reach them Thursday, and that employees who work closest with COVID patients will get them first.
Once more shipments arrive, the vaccines will be given to other medical workers and eventually the community, with those at highest risk receiving them first.
The timing of that is uncertain since the hospitals don’t yet know how much of the vaccine they’ll receive and how soon. The officials agree, though, that it likely will be weeks or months into the new year before the public can receive vaccinations, with the distribution process continuing through the spring or summer.
Therefore continuing to wear masks, washing hands frequently, socially distancing and cooperating with contact tracers remain crucial to mitigating spread of the virus, they said.
The surge in COVID cases that local hospitals are now seeing is in large part a result of Thanksgiving gatherings between family and friends in which the virus was spread, said Dr. Jeffrey Held, St. Joseph’s vice president of medical affairs.
“COVID fatigue” is also causing some not to take the necessary steps to protect themselves or others from the virus and contributing to the rising number of cases locally and nationwide, said Dr. Debra Powell, Tower Health and Reading Hospital section chief for infectious diseases and medical director for infection prevention.
Some of those who get COVID will have minor symptoms but others get very
sick or die from the virus, and that can include those who were previously healthy, which shows how unpredictable COVID is, she said.
“This is a significant disease for many,” she said.
Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt agreed, speaking about how his father died earlier in December from complications of COVID. “This is real,” he said. Commissioner Christian Y. Leinbach mentioned that the county recorded seven more COVID-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total to 53 this month and 501 since March, showing that things are getting worse.
“The surge is happening,” he said.
Leinbach said he hears from the public about the widespread skepticism and fear of the vaccine, but those with concerns should speak with their medical professionals rather than rely on what they read on social media or hear from friends, said Dr. Mary Kelleher, chief medical officer for Berks Community Health Center.
Though the vaccines are being produced quickly, the testing and safety protocols they go through are the same as they are for other vaccines, the doctors said.
Powell said earlier Wednesday that the vaccine is safe and effective, with both Pfizer and Moderna reporting approximately 95 percent efficacy in the prevention of COVID-19.
It will take 60 to 70 percent of people in the area to be immune to the virus in order for “herd immunity” to be reached and reduce COVID’s quick spread, she said.
And that is best done through the vaccine, since having that many active COVID cases in a short period of time would overwhelm hospitals and cost many lives, she said.
Side effects of the vaccine can be minor soreness at the injection site after the first vaccine, and for some a lowgrade fever, body aches and chills for a short time after the second, she said.
But most won’t experience those symptoms, and even for those who do the side effects will likely be much less severe than the virus, she said.
Kelleher said her family members will get the vaccine as soon as they’re able, which she wouldn’t be recommending if she didn’t believe in its safety and effectiveness.
“I believe it will save lives,” she said.
Neither hospital is making vaccines mandatory for employees, but workers are being encouraged to get them, and at some point they could become a requirement to reduce the risk of health care workers spreading the virus to patients, Powell and Held said.
All employees who receive the vaccine will still be required to wear face masks, practice proper hand hygiene, and social distancing and must also continue to wear any additional PPE required for their unit, Powell said.
Since the pandemic began, the testing for the virus has improved and so have the treatments for patients, Held said.
“We’re much better able to care for (COVID) patients now,” he said.
But hospital beds are increasingly filling with those who’ve contracted the virus, so much so that what is now considered a slower day would have been a peak day for cases in the spring, he said.
“We all want to get back to our full lives,” he said, but without people being properly careful, it’s likely the numbers are going to continue to peak.
“(Not) passing it on is the key here,” Powell said, pointing out that everyone has loved ones who are at high risk.
Flu cases will likely start reaching local hospitals in the next week or two, she said, making it even more difficult to care for everyone.