YNHH Chief Clinical Officer Thomas Balcezak speaking at the press briefing.
The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the Yale New Haven Health System has dropped since December from 440 to just over 200, progress that CEO Marna Borgstrom called “pretty remarkable.”
At a press briefing hosted by YNHH on Thursday at 11 AM, Borgstrom and Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer of Yale New Haven Health, presented improving hospitalization and vaccine numbers. They also detailed their response to vaccination hesitancy, among both staff and the New Haven community at large.
On the hospitalization front, Borgstrom noted that just two weeks ago, ICU patients in the system numbered over 80. Currently, there are 52 patients, 31 of them on ventilators.
Balcezak also reported that, within the Yale New Haven Health System, more than 82,000 vaccine doses have reached people’s arms; 30,000 people have received their second dose.
“We are exhausting our supply of vaccine every week,” Balcezak added: The system uses 95 percent of vaccine doses weekly.
Nevertheless, worrying signs of vaccine hesitancy indicate that the city and the health system need to do more to reach underrepresented populations, he said.
Just 40 percent of Black invited staff have been vaccinated, and only 57 percent of Hispanic employees. Balcezak acknowledged that the percentages “trail” overall numbers — in total, 70 percent of invited staff have been vaccinated.
For the wider community, Balcezak cited a list of programs such as town halls, public information campaigns, and a “reverse 911 call” program that prioritize residents of minority communities who called a number for the vaccine. He said the health system has also tried to make vaccine sites accessible, near bus lines and with adequate parking. The system has kicked off an initiative in which nurses directly visit homes to vaccinate homebound citizens. (“We are currently just vaccinating those patients that are served through our home health agencies. However, information about the vaccine is available by calling our call center at 833-ASK-YNHH,” reported YNHH VP Vin Petrini.)
“We can’t underestimate the historic concerns that are real,” Balcezak said, referencing racist medical experimentation done on Black people that is a contributing factor to the current numbers.
While Balcezak said that he hopes Covid-19 can ultimately be eradicated, he indicated that vaccinate hesitancy numbers might signal that the virus will remain “endemic somewhere in the population for some time.”
"Just 40 percent of Black invited staff have been vaccinated, and only 57 percent of Hispanic employees. Balcezak acknowledged that the percentages "trail" overall numbers — in total, 70 percent of invited staff have been vaccinated."
How much of this is due to people who have already been infected with COVID-19 over the past year feeling like they don't need to get this particular vaccine (since they already have immunity), versus just not wanting to take a vaccine in general?