Mount Nittany administers its first doses of COVID-19 vaccine. Here’s what to know
For the first time in months, Dr. Nirmal Joshi is excited by a “renewed energy” at Mount Nittany Medical Center after staff began to administer the first local round of COVID-19 vaccines.
“It’s an atmosphere that we have not seen in a long time,” Mount Nittany Health’s chief medical officer said Friday. “The excitement, the optimism — it’s just palpable.”
The hospital received its first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday and began to administer the 975 dosages to front-line health care workers Friday. Over the next three days, Mount Nittany hospital staff will receive the first dose, and Joshi expects the second dosages for those same employees will arrive within three weeks.
“Those who work in the hospital setting — in that risk group — every single one of them should be able to get the vaccine, and that’s our intent,” he said. “That’s our first priority.”
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized emergency use for the Modern vaccine, with six million doses to soon be shipped out across the country.
Mount Nittany is eligible to receive the Moderna vaccine and vaccinate employees at outpatient facilities, but Joshi isn’t sure when it will arrive.
“It’s a question of when do we get it, we don’t know exactly when, but as soon as we get that, we will repeat the same process for our outpatient providers and staff,” Joshi said.
Though protection from the vaccine is not immediate, Joshi boasted its safety, high quality and high efficacy rate and said everyone should “absolutely” take advantage of the vaccine when it becomes available to the general population.
When can Centre County residents expect to get the vaccine?
The Pennsylvania Department of Health plans to distribute the vaccine using a three-phased approach based on recommendations from the CDC.
Due to a limited supply of dosages, health care personnel, first responders and residents at long-term care facilities are in the first priority group.
Phase two includes remaining health care staff and residents at long-term care facilities as well as the general population. By phase three, the state anticipates there will be a sufficient supply of vaccine doses to cover remaining populations.
The expectation from health officials, Joshi said, is that the general population will have access to the vaccine by the spring.
“But quite honestly, I’m not sure if that is the case or not,” he added.
What COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized?
The FDA has given emergency use authorization the the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Data has shown that the vaccine starts working soon after the first dose, reporting a 95% efficacy rate seven days after the second dose.
This means that about 95% of people who get the vaccine are protected from becoming ill with the coronavirus, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The Pfizer vaccine is available to people 16 and older and requires two injections given 21 days apart.
Moderna’s vaccine has an efficacy rate of 94.1% and requires two injections given 28 days apart, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Why does the vaccine require two doses?
Vaccines work by “forcing the body to create antibodies” to fight a virus, Joshi said.
The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine generates an immune response in the patient’s body, he said, and the second dose elicits an even higher antibody production response than the first injection.
“It sort of tops off the immunity in many ways,” Joshi said.
Are the vaccines safe?
Despite the accelerated time it took to develop a vaccine — less than a year — Joshi said the data from clinical trials is “very comforting.”
Data shows that the Pfizer vaccine has a 95% efficacy rate and had no serious side effects. Reports demonstrate that the vaccine prevented mild and severe forms of COVID and was 94% effective in older adults, those who are more susceptible to developing severe COVID-19 symptoms.
Pfizer and BioNTech’s trial included 44,000 volunteers. Half of the participants received the vaccine, and the others were given a placebo shot of salt water. The companies said that out of 170 COVID-19 cases, 162 were in the placebo group, and eight were in the vaccine group.
Out of 10 cases of severe coronavirus cases, nine received the placebo.
The most common serious side effect was fatigue, with 3.7% of participants reporting tiredness after they took the second dose. Others said they experienced a headache, and older adults had fewer and milder side effects, the companies said.
“The very small risk of side effects is very, very encouraging, and I would strongly encourage every single person who is eligible to get the vaccine,” Joshi said.
Will the vaccine give me coronavirus?
“One of the most remarkable” aspects of the COVID-19 vaccine, Joshi said, is its novel method of fighting the coronavirus.
No form of virus or pathogen was used to create the vaccine, he said. Instead, developers used mRNA.
“The mRNA is actually inserted into the cell using a very unique technology,” he said. “That causes the cell to kind of express a certain type of spike protein on the surface of the cell which tricks the body into believing its the real virus when it’s actually not.”
This method, Joshi said, triggers antibody production to fight the virus when someone is actually exposed.
“It’s a very novel method which makes it even more safe in so many ways,” he said. “You don’t have any form of the pathogen getting into your body.”
Should someone who had COVID-19 still get vaccinated?
Though Joshi thinks people who contracted the coronavirus should still get vaccinated, they are not the highest priority.
“Obviously, people who have not gotten the disease are the most susceptible to disease,” he said.
When the vaccine becomes more readily available, Joshi recommends those who were already sick still take precaution and take the vaccine.
“Antibody persistence in the system, the duration of time, still remains somewhat uncertain,” he said.
Do mitigation guidelines still need to be followed?
Though vaccine distribution is underway, Joshi said it is crucial people follow health and safety guidelines.
“We are really hoping that this is sort of the last phase of this virus,” he said. “What a shame it would be if the deaths were to continue to escalate during this time when we have such a high-quality, high-efficacy vaccine.”
Eventually, Joshi hopes to see the authorization of 4-5 total vaccines to protect people from the coronavirus, but development is not there yet. Masking and social distancing are the only widespread ways people can prevent infection and death until the vaccine becomes more accessible, he said.
“Please, please, please, this has become almost boring to say anymore, but it remains the single most important thing to do: Mask up,” he said.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 3:15 PM.
