More than 2,000 people in Centre County have received the COVID-19 vaccine. Who’s next?
The desire to get the vaccine that safeguards against the disease that has infected one in every 20 Pennsylvanians has been feast or famine, Mount Nittany Health’s top medical professional said Friday.
Clearing that hurdle, Chief Medical Officer Nirmal Joshi said, is among the biggest challenges in the comings weeks and months.
“There are individuals who are strongly wanting to get the vaccine as soon as they can possibly get the vaccine, and there are others who are not sure, who want to take a little bit of time and want to process how things happen,” Joshi said. “The problem that happens with that is deciding, ‘Am I done with this phase? Should I move on? Or should I stay here and try to vaccinate more people?’ I think there is a little bit of a quandary that all of us are in to make judgments as to how best to roll out.”
How is the COVID-19 vaccine being distributed?
The state Health Department will distribute the vaccine in phases, and released an updated plan on Friday.
Health care personnel, long-term care facility residents, employees who work in congregate care settings and those older than 75 are being offered the vaccine first under the initial phase. That phase, state Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said Friday, was updated to include specific health care workers including pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, therapists and more.
State officials have not offered a timeline for when that initial phase of the vaccination campaign, which began last month, will be completed.
“Vaccinations are an important tool in stopping the spread of COVID-19, and the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency have done a lot of hard work to facilitate a smooth, strategic vaccine rollout,” Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement. “But most of the vaccine distribution process is controlled by the federal government and unfortunately, that means there are a lot of unknowns.”
The federal government has allocated to Pennsylvania more than 827,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and more than 235,000 shots have been given across the state.
The next phase includes people 75 and older and a wide range of front-line essential workers, including clergy, prison guards, school staff and public transportation and grocery store workers.
After that, phase 1C will make people 65-75 years old eligible for the vaccine, along with people 16-64 with high-risk conditions and more essential workers including those in finance, legal services, federal, state, county and local government and more.
When more vaccine is available, anyone who was not previously covered and is age 16 and older, will be vaccinated in Phase 2, the Health Department said.
“Our recent success in slowing the spread of the virus, and the hope that we’ve been given with the introduction of these vaccines should energize all of us to continue the fight against this disease,” Wolf said in a statement. “We need to remain patient as vaccine distribution expands and the Department of Health works to keep everyone informed of the status of vaccine.”
How many people in Centre County have received the vaccine?
As of Saturday, 2,606 people received at least one dose of the vaccine in Centre County, while 423 have been fully vaccinated, according to the state. Friday saw the highest number of full doses — meaning people who have received the two required doses — with 389 administered and 18 partial (first doses) administered in the county.
Mount Nittany Health has administered nearly 2,000 initial doses, according to a Friday update. The health system began administering doses to its employees after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last month. When it received the Moderna vaccine at the end of December, the health system began the process of vaccinating other community members, such as health care workers from Centre Volunteers in Medicine, county emergency personnel, local physicians, dentists and school nurses.
Nearly 700 doses have been given to those health care workers within the community.
As for when the county’s general population can expect to be offered the vaccine, Joshi refrained from offering an estimated timeline.
Mount Nittany will only advance to a new phase when authorized by the state, he said.
“Unfortunately, we do not have direct information on exactly what the timeline of that implementation may be for the general population,” Joshi said. “... Given the way the distribution occurs — from the federal level, down to the state level and then eventually to us — sometimes even they don’t know exactly how much might be available and in what kind of time frame.”
Four long-term care facilities in Centre County — The Village at Penn State, Centre Crest, Juniper Village at Brookline and Foxdale Village — have received the vaccine, according to the state.
How does the vaccine work? Will it give me COVID-19?
Both vaccines that received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration are mRNA vaccines. They are not live viruses.
The vaccine contains material from the virus that causes COVID-19, which gives cells instructions for how to make a harmless protein to better ward off the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The vaccine does not give people COVID-19 and does not make you immune.
Are the vaccines safe?
The effectiveness of the vaccines is “tremendous,” Penn State Health Holy Spirit Medical Center infectious disease physician Dr. Mohammad Ali wrote in a statement.
Both have been about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 in adults. Side effects, like fever, headache, muscle pain and fatigue, are temporary and pale in comparison to the disease.
“Those side effects aren’t nearly as bad as severe cases of COVID-19, which can be fatal,” Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center hospital medicine division Chief Dr. M. Fahad Khalid wrote in a statement.
Does the vaccine protect against the new COVID-19 variant?
Public health experts aren’t sure yet, though they expect the vaccines to remain effective. Diagnostic tests should be able to detect the variant, according to the state Health Department.
Is the vaccine mandatory in Pennsylvania?
No. The state Health Department does not plan to make the vaccine mandatory.
Should I get vaccinated even if I already had COVID-19?
Yes. Health professionals do not yet know how long immunity to the virus lasts after someone is infected.
Limited supply will dictate when those who already had COVID-19 will be able to access the vaccine.
Should I wear a mask after getting the vaccine?
Yes. The vaccine safeguards against you getting sick, but researchers do not know if others can still get infected.
Can my child get the vaccine?
Not yet.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is not yet approved for children younger than 16. The Moderna vaccine is not yet approved for children under the age of 18.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 9, 2021 at 9:07 AM.