16K Vaccinated By YNHH So Far; 15K To Go

Yale New Haven Health has vaccinated roughly 16,000 healthcare providers over the past three weeks — with 15,000 hospital workers yet to receive their first shot, and early vaccine recipients slated to receive their second doses in the coming five days.

Ohm Deshpande, who is YNHH’s executive director for clinical operations, gave those updates Monday morning during a half-hour press conference held on the first floor of a YNHH medical office building at 35 Park St.

Standing alongside U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, Deshpande said that YNHH has vaccinated roughly 16,000 hospital employees, Yale School of Medicine faculty members, community physicians, and third-party healthcare providers who contract with the regional hospital system.

YNHH began vaccinating its employees on Dec. 15, when it received from the state its first shipment of 1,950 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

“We want to vaccinate everyone we’ve invited,” Deshpande said, which right now is limited to ​“individuals who are directly providing patient care.”

“Our goal is well over 90 percent” of staff and healthcare providers vaccinated, he said. In order to vaccinate 100 percent of eligible YNHH personnel, he said, the hospital system would need to reach another 15,000 people.

The news comes amidst a national backdrop of confusion and delays that have led to a significantly lower number of Americans vaccinated to date than initially hoped for by the federal Centers for Disease Control. The federal government under President Donald Trump has ceded most of the logistical responsibilities for vaccine distribution and administration to overburdened state and local health departments, which have struggled to keep up with the general public’s demand.

Deshpande and Murphy said that, unlike in other states, YNHH in particular and Connecticut hospitals more broadly have provided a model example of how to efficiently get Covid-19 vaccines into the arms of eligible recipients.

“Whatever vaccine we get on a weekly basis, we get into human beings,” Deshpande said.

Murphy applaudd YNHH’s vaccination efforts to date. ​“Every bit of vaccine that Yale has gotten has immediately been used to vaccinate first responders,” he said.

“Whatever gets sent to Connecticut, we are getting into the arms of human beings,” the senator continued. ​“That can’t be said of every state in the nation right now.”

Deshpande that YNHH received 5,000 new doses of Covid-19 vaccines on Monday morning, and that the hospital system plans to administer second doses of the two-dose treatment to early recipients of the vaccine over the coming five days.

He added that roughly 11,000 to 12,000 of the Covid-19 vaccines administered by YNHH to date have been of the Moderna variety, with the remainder produced by Pfizer-BioNTech.

The state remains in Phase 1A of the governor’s vaccination plan, which prioritizes vaccines for healthcare providers, first responders, and long-term care facility residents. Subsequent phases later this spring should open up vaccine eligibility to broader swaths of the community.

The city health department has also begun vaccinating healthcare workers and first responders with its own state-provided supply of vaccine doses.

Murphy: Feds Must Increase Vaccine Production

After taking a brief tour of YNHH’s vaccine storage facility at 35 Park St., Murphy (pictured) stressed that his responsibility at this juncture of the vaccine rollout is to advocate for the production of more vaccines and for a more predictable schedule of vaccine deliveries for hospitals like YNHH.

“I’m going to be pressing the incoming Biden Administration to dramatically expand the number of manufacturers of vaccines and improve reliability of distribution,” he said.

Murphy called on President-elect Joe Biden to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to ​“require more manufacturers to make vaccines.”

Current President Donald Trump could have and should invoked the DPA earlier in the pandemic to ramp up production of personal protective equipment and testing supplies, he said. When Biden takes office later this month, Murphy said, he should learn from Trump’s missed opportunity and act quickly to scale up production for vaccines.

Murphy and Deshpande said that hospitals like YNHH also need ​“more lead time” regarding how many vaccines they are going to receive from the state, and when.

Since its first batch of 1,950 vaccine doses on Dec. 15, YNHH has received 10,000 vaccine doses one week, and 5,000 doses another, Murphy said.

“The main thing we need is more vaccine in a predictable fashion so that we can continue to speed our efforts,” Deshpande said. ​“We know how to scale this up very quickly. But we need some help in terms of getting the vaccines that we need.”

Murphy said that, even though the hospital puts in its vaccine requests with the state on a weekly basis, this problem of a lack of regular and predictable distribution is not Connecticut’s fault.

“This is a problem with the state not knowing how much vaccine they’re getting on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis” from the federal government, the senator said.

Survey: 84% Intend To Get Vaccinated

Murphy and Deshpande also touched on another potential hurdle to Covid-19 mass vaccination in the coming weeks and months: public skepticism of the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, which could lead to hesitancy and lack of interest in receiving them.

“There is absolutely no reason that people should not be getting vaccinated whenever your turn comes up,” Murphy said. Roughly three weeks into the vaccination effort nationwide, ​“we are really seeing no adverse reactions beyond a handful of expected allergic reactions to this vaccine.”

“If you are able to get the vaccine, you should get it,” he continued. ​“There is no medical or scientific reason about why you should be hesitant about getting this vaccine. It has been studied exhaustively.”

Deshpande agreed. He described the Covid-19 vaccines as ​“one of the cleanest vaccines ever developed by humans,” with few ingredients and a safe track record.

According to an internal email sent out by Yale School of Medicine (YSM) Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs Paul Taheri on Dec. 17, an overwhelming majority of YNHH and YSM employees surveyed said that they intend to get vaccinated.

“Results from last week’s survey measuring YNHHS/YM employees’ willingness to get vaccinated show very strong support and intent, with the vast majority (84%) affirming plans to receive the vaccine,” Taheri wrote. ​“Of those, 87% want to get it as quickly as possible.”

That email also broke down a list of reasons provided by survey respondents who said they were hesitant to get vaccinated.

Those reasons included concerns about long-term consequences potentially associated with the vaccine, concerns about unintended side effects, and concerns that the ​“vaccine was rushed and I don’t trust it.”

“Because a key reason for the request was to provide insight for ongoing communications, the survey asked those who were unwilling to get the vaccine to share their reasoning,” he wrote. ​“Over the next months you can expect to see vaccine messaging online (screensavers, social media, etc.) and throughout the Health System. (Please use #CrushCOVID #YM #YNHH and #YaleFightsCOVID to share your vaccine experience with others!)”

Click on the Facebook Live video below to watch the full presser.