Paul Bass Photo
Outreach: Diego Condo gets his Pfizer shot from Richard Jennings at Fair Haven Health’s Wilbur Cross High School clinic, which like others in town now accepts walk-ins.
New Haven entered a new phase of the Covid-19 pandemic: Cases are way down. Plenty of vaccine is available. But it now looks like the coronavirus is here to stay.
Yale New Haven Health officials detailed that new phase Monday in an online press briefing.
They spoke as The New York Times reported that vaccine hesitancy has convinced public health experts that society will not reach the 80 percent “herd immunity” necessary to eliminate Covid-19.
Zoom
YNHH’s Borgstrom, Balcezak at Monday’s press briefing.
YNHH Chief Clinical Officer Tom Balcezak and CEO Marna Borgstrom agreed with that assessment.
Balcezak noted that humankind has succeeded in eradicating only one infectious disease, smallpox. Given vaccine hesitancy and the lack of vaccines in nations with new outbreaks (and variants), Covid-19 is not looking like it will become the second.
“It looks like this will be joining all the other diseases that plague mankind,” including polio and the flu, Balcezak stated.
“This disease is with us now for a very long time. We will see those who are not vaccinated get sick on occasion [more often than others]. They are at higher risk of getting sick. And they are at higher risk of dying than people who are vaccinated.”
All that said, Borgstrom and Balcezak had good news to report as well about the pandemic’s trajectory:
• Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to fall. YNHH has 142 Covid-19 inpatients across its five hospitals, 70 in New Haven. The systemwide total is 40 fewer than two weeks ago.
• 54 percent of the state has received at least one vaccine shot; 38 percent is fully vaccinated. And the vaccines are working, slashing caseloads. The average age of people dying or being hospitalized continues dropping (since older people have disproportionately been vaccinated).
• Efforts to reach “vulnerable” neighborhoods (i.e. disproportionately poor or Black and Latino) have born fruit. YNHH has been holding popups and concentrating other vaccine outreach in 50 of the state’s most vulnerable zip codes. They represent 25 percent of the state’s population. And more than 25 percent of vaccine doses recently administered have been in those zip codes.
But demand for vaccination has dropped significantly. In Phase One of the vaccination cycle, people were clamoring for the vaccine, but it was tough getting an appointment because of low supply. In Phase Two, there still wasn’t enough supply, but the system was able to vaccinate 30,000 to 40,000 people a week. Now, in the new Phase Three, doses are going begging because of hesitancy. Even though there’s more supply, the number of doses administered systemwide last week dropped to 25,000, from 46,000 a week earlier.
To address that challenge, YNHH is trying to get out the word about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, Balcezak said. People are particularly wary of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of complications that affected about a dozen out of 7 million people who received it. Balcezak said it’s important to get out the word about what a small number this is, and how well the vaccines are working at saving lives and limiting the effects when a small number of people do still catch Covid.
Pop-up clinics at churches seem to work, Balcezak said. He invited congregations and other community centers to host YNHH pop-ups: “If you can give us a group of 10 people, we’ll try to send a vaccination team out there, and we’ll try to get 100 shots in in a period of eight hours.”
Also, YNHH is opening all its vaccination sites to walk-ins. You don’t need an appointment. But you can make one if you wish. Click here for details about where and when to get a shot.
Balcezak also held out the hope that approval will come this week for vaccinating children as young as 12. That will help boost rates and slow the spread of the disease, he predicted.
Given the expected persistence of the coronavirus, and the way it spreads, YNHH will probably need to maintain dedicated Covid units for the indefinite future, Balcezak said.
Many of the people who've expressed vaccine hesitancy have said they want to wait to see what the long term effects of the vaccines are, most saying they want to wait a year, because the vaccines are so new.
People who haven't gone back for their second dose are saying it is because of the side effects from the first vaccine.
More education needs to happen on what the expected long term effects of the vaccines will be.
More education needs to happen to explain that the side effects/symptoms of catching covid-19 are WAY worse than the side effects from the vaccines themselves.
There needs to be more education on the possibility of blood clots from the J&J vaccine are significantly smaller than the risk of blood clots from other medications that also carry the same risk, but people take those medications every day despite the risk, because the benefits outweigh the risks. Comparing the 1 in a million risk of the J&J risk of blood clots to the risk of being struck by lightning, or other non-medication risk scenarios isn't a helpful comparison for the general public, it's like comparing apples to steak rather than apples to oranges.
I know if you could get your vaccine at all your local pharmacies or grocery stores like you can with the flu shot, would make it much more likely that people would get the vaccines. At this point convenience is the key to overcoming the excuses for not getting the vaccine.
Also more home visit and workplace visit vaccine mobil vans would make it easier for people who are having trouble getting to the vaccine locations due to transportation issues, scheduling issues or homebound disabled or elderly mobility issues. Bringing the vaccine to the public rather than waiting for the public to come to the vaccine clinics will help reduce obstacles to getting the vaccine.