Thomas Breen Pre-Pandemic File Photo
Andrew Orefice, who’s arranging for YNHH docs to field vaccine questions at CMT meetings around town.
Is it safe to get a shot if you have seafood allergies?
Is there a different dose for folks over 65, as with the flu vaccine?
Will we get a choice of Pfizer or Moderna?
What do I tell my skeptical friends of color?
Will the city encourage or require us to get the shots?
Those questions emerged at a Covid vaccine info-sharing session at a Dwight Central Management Team (DCMT) meeting, fielded by Yale docs.
Nearly 40 people were online Tuesday night via the Zoom teleconferencing app for the team’s first meeting of the new year, hosted by CMT Chair Florita Gillespie.
GIllespie invited the Yale-New Haven Hospital docs to make a presentation about the Covid-19 vaccination effort.
Yale New Haven reps plan to meet with other CMTs as well as the vaccination campaign —currently focused on health workers, first responders and nursing-home residents — rolls out to the public nears.
The session came after the city received its first batch of 1,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine and began to vaccinate its key health and leadership; and after Yale New Haven Hospital began its own vaccination campaign with nearly 2,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
They are following the protocols for eligible healthcare workers and emergency responders who fall within the state’s Phase 1A category of vaccine recipients.
Yale New Haven community outreach rep Andrew Orefice brought Drs. Tracy Rabin, Sameer Khan, and Amed Logroño from the hospital’s department of internal medicine to Tuesday night’s virtual Q&A.
It turned out that there were far more Qs than As.
Thomas Breen Pre-Pandemic File Photo
Dwight CMT Chair Florita Gillespie.
Gillespie began the questioning herself by asking if members of the public will have a choice of which vaccine they prefer.
“That’ll be difficult,” Logrono replied. “It’ll depend on supply and demand. Maybe once we start vaccinating the public, maybe there will be more of a choice.”
“What will be the procedure when the time comes?” Gillespie followed up. “Will we need to talk to our primary doctor?”
“There isn’t any protocol as yet” on that question, Logrono responded. If a patient has an ongoing condition like cancer, it would make sense to consult a primary doc for sure, he added.
Another questioner asked what procedures have been worked out for rolling out the vaccine to different neighborhoods and populations.
“We don’t have details,” said Rabin, “how things will roll out once we vaccinate in the general public. The hospital and the city are talking.”
The discussion then turned to questioners’ general anxiety as to whether the vaccine will be effective against the evolving variants of the virus.
“The recommendation now is that it works against the variant,” Logrono said.“Time will tell.”
Other concerns: How much protection it will provide? Will a recipient will be prevented from getting the disease, passing it along, or will the inoculation simply reduce the severity of symptoms?
To all these concerns the doctors were careful to state only what is known. Namely, as Logrono put it: “It’s 95 percent effective against the symptoms.”
Thomas Breen Photo
Board of Public Health Commissioner Darnell Young getting his city-administered vaccine last week.
Then questioners steered the docs to specifics: There are flu shots for elderly and non-elderly. Will that be the same with the Covid inoculations?
“With Covid that’s unclear right now,” Logrono said. “Right now both the Moderna and Pfizer are available to the same groups. Now there are no distinctions if you are 65. ..We’re still learning.”
Virginia Spell asked if Yale New Haven Hospital is contemplating giving just one of the two doses per patient to maximize rollout to the greatest number of people, as is being done in the United Kingdom.
“That’s still considered an experimental protocol,” replied Rabin. “It’s nothing we’re thinking of implementing in the United States. At this point it’s going to be two doses once we roll out to the general public.”
Dwight District Manager Lt. John Healey asked if someone who has had Covid-19 can get it again.
“I don’t know,” said Logrono. “I haven’t seen that yet.”
Sean Reeves said he has noticed a lot of skepticism about the vaccine in his circle. “How do you plan on disseminating information apart from saying, ‘Get the shots?’”
“We’re trying to figure out the best way,” answered Rabin. “This is something being worked on now by the city, the hospital. We’re trying to figure out the best way, and we’ll need information from the community. Events like this with people asking questions is a step to getting there.”
The hour-long discussion wound down with questions about whether kids are to be vaccinated— no; the vaccine is currently approved for ages 16 and above — with whether you should you be concerned if you have seafood allergies. Answer: No. However, Logrono added, if you have a history of allergies, instead of waiting the expected 15 minutes after the shot, you will likely be asked to wait 30, just in case.
Finally: “Are we being encouraged or told to be vaccinated”?
“Even health care people are encouraged, not required, in the hospital,” said Rabin. “The majority are taking advantage of it. Given a choice between having a sore arm for a few days and the alternative — holding the phone up so people can visit for their last days — these are not things you want to do as a doctor or a nurse. But, no, it’s not required of us, and I think that’s similar to the way it will roll out in the community.”
