Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
Although the COVID-19 vaccines were approved for emergency distribution by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last December, they are completely safe and necessary, guaranteeing up to 95 percent protection after two doses against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has so far caused, at least in the United States, over 23 million positive cases and over 385,000 deaths.
This was argued by physicians and specialists William Shaffner and Robert M. Wachter, who during the panel "Challenges in Vaccine Distribution", organized by Ethnic Media ServicesThey stressed that today, more than ever, it is necessary to trust the vaccine, use it and continue to maintain the necessary care to prevent the spread of the virus.
However, distribution of the vaccine in various parts of the country has been slow, with only five million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna laboratories being distributed in the United States so far, due to "bottlenecks at both the national and local levels," said Dr. William Shaffner.
In that regard, he noted that residents in hundreds of cities are unsure of when the vaccine will arrive. "Sometimes it comes a little late, sometimes it comes with fewer doses than anticipated, and sometimes the Minnesota vaccine comes to Tennessee," he said.
"Frankly, some of the places - where the vaccine is distributed - thought this was just going to be another flu vaccination campaign. They didn't prepare enough," said the also professor of preventive medicine at the Department of Health Policy in Nashville, Tenn.
Added to this, he said, are the logistical challenges, since in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, super-coolers are required that can keep doses at extremely cold temperatures and thus the vaccine maintains its stability and good condition.
Dr. Robert M. Watcher is not surprised that "we're not doing very well" at vaccination, because he said, "the only parts we've liked are the vaccine discovery and the science. We don't seem to have the logistics, the politics, the society and all the other components that need to come together.
However, they agreed that it is extremely necessary and advisable to be vaccinated when the time comes and when it is time, because there is, so far, no other way to fight against the virus that continues to cause more deaths every day.
There is a whole series of videos, texts and messages on the Internet that generate bad information against vaccines, many of them even paranoid and conspiratorial, which only cause uncertainty in people and thus advance ignorance and people continue to die.
"There's a lot of nonsense on the Internet that causes concern," Watcher said, so he and his colleagues have taken it upon themselves to make videos, texts and messages that can answer all the questions people might have about the COVID-19 vaccine and thereby eliminate the fear of immunization against the virus.
"The fact that they're choosing not to get vaccinated is absolutely horrifying, because we know that vaccines are incredibly effective and now we know that they're very, very, very safe," he said.
For his part, Dr. Shaffner said and made clear that those women who seek to become pregnant, are pregnant or breastfeeding, can, without fear, get the vaccine, because it does not transmit or harm the fetus or the baby that consumes the milk.
"The vaccine is safe, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly supports it, and we can be confident that it is a good and appropriate thing. These women need to be reassured because, as I said earlier, there are all sorts of things on social networks that could discourage them from doing that -- getting vaccinated -- anytime soon," she said.
In that sense, he added that RNA vaccines do not approach or alter "anything in the human DNA of our cells, neither mothers nor babies. So this is a safe process for all of them," she said.
He said the COVID-19 vaccine was essentially designed to ensure that someone could receive a second dose three weeks after the first immunization in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech and four weeks in the case of Moderna.
However, it is necessary that the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine are applied because they protect the immunized person by about 45 or 50 percent, while for the second dose, the effectiveness reaches up to 95 percent.
The specialist said that, despite having the first dose of the vaccine, it is necessary to continue with the care that has made a difference in the transmission of the virus so far: washing hands constantly, wearing a mask, keeping a distance of at least two meters from other people outside the home and not going to crowded places.
Dr. Sheffner explained that, according to one study, a substantial proportion of those vaccinated are no longer able to transmit, "but this is preliminary data and we know that there is some potential for transmission. So, until full data come in, if you are not vaccinated for the first or second dose, please continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing.
The fact is that misinformation about VIDOC-19 disease, treatment and vaccines has come from the very top, as in the case of President Donald Trump, because his administration has not handled the issue well, which has helped the virus to spread.
"I think that when there is a lack of national orientation, there is too much room for maneuver," Robert Wachter said.
He added that there is a well-intentioned effort to try to be very careful about which groups receive vaccines first and when, in addition to paying attention to equity and ensuring that groups that appear to have the greatest number of victims of the pandemic, particularly communities of color, are prioritized.
He explained that while it is required that the most vulnerable groups be vaccinated, the fact that Walgreens or CVS helps implement the vaccine doses, it is not certain that the people who are immunized actually belong to those groups.
In response, he said, "the answer is always 'we'll work it out,' and I think the lesson of the last 10 months in terms of COVID-19 is that 'we'll work it out' is not a good answer," he said.
He said vaccination has not been treated as the emergency it is, because people who should have been immunized and were not, are the ones who could get sick, some of whom will be treated and some of whom will die.
"Because of the value of people dying every day, we had to attack this as an absolute emergency, that's how it was with the development of the vaccine, but we've faced the distribution of the vaccine as a relatively routine process that will stumble until we find the right answer, and that clearly doesn't work very well," said the chairman of the University of California, San Francisco's Department of Medicine.
The situation could be very different as soon as Joe Biden comes to power next Wednesday, January 20, and with it comes the change of administration, he said, because from there the communication with people will be much clearer and more forceful.
"Leadership is going to be very important, and the new administration has already appointed many of the key leaders to these roles, there are a couple more coming and they are great. They are smart, they are good communicators, they are able to communicate science," Dr. Wachter said.
Robert Wachter noted that the national average for vaccine distribution in the country is about 30 or 32 percent, "that's nothing to be proud of, so the fact that we're falling behind -- California -- the national average is terrible,
She said the state health department is trying to figure out what the problem is with the poor distribution and slow application of the vaccine, a complex problem attributed to Southern California's experiencing a massive increase in SARS-CoV-2 positive cases.
"Right now and in many cases the same entities you count on to carry out large and complicated vaccination programs are also taking care of hundreds and hundreds of really sick patients. We have to do both at the same time. You can't say it right, we're too busy. We don't have the people to do the vaccination.
In this regard, he said the state must be more creative and provide the resources necessary for more and more people to be immunized, whether it be hiring doctors, nurses, dentists and pharmacists to do so.
"This is the most important problem in the world today and the faster we vaccinate people, the more lives will be saved," he said.
One idea that experts considered might work, in order to distribute the vaccines, is to address the lottery or randomization system to make the vaccination service more equitable, once those who are a priority and who suffer most from the consequences of the pandemic have been immunized.
In the case of California, they said, if vaccination continues at the current rate, it will take just over a year for everyone to be immunized, a situation that is "unacceptable.
