It was early on the morning of Dec. 15 at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where I have worked as an infectious disease physician for the past 31 years. As cameras flashed, a UPS delivery truck rolled onto the hospital ramp with our first shipment of COVID-19 vaccine. Tears rolled down my cheeks.
It was a bittersweet day. Here we were, about to receive a vaccine that is meant to be our last chance to end the horrible COVID-19 pandemic and return to normal life. But my mind was flooded with the memories of my wife, Nisha, who lost her life this summer to COVID-19.
She fought a valiant battle. The entire medical team applied every medical advance they had to offer remdesivir, corticosteroids, convalescent plasma, mechanical ventilation and, finally, extracorporeal membrane oxygen. This was to no avail as I watched each therapy fail.
When she passed away, the entire medical team felt terrible guilt for letting me down. It was not their fault. After all, I had been part of several medical teams at UTMB that have worked furiously to battle this pandemic in our community. As director of Infection Control and Healthcare Epidemiology, my staff has worked intensely to develop procedures and provide training to reduce COVID-19 exposure, work with the supply chain to ensure availability of personal protective equipment, develop new procedures to reprocess scarce N95 respiratory masks and eye shields, develop visitation and employee screening policies and conduct contact tracing of infected employees, among many other duties.
For me, all that came to a screeching halt with my wifes illness.
After her passing, I went into mourning and soul-searching. However, my mourning did not last long. About two months ago, the president of UTMB, Dr. Ben Raimer, called me to see if I would be willing to co-chair a task force to prepare our university to provide the soon-to-be-available COVID-19 vaccines to our more than 16,000 employees and students and our community. This was not just a demonstration of his faith in my ability; he knew this would provide some meaning to my work.
I set up about creating a team that included members from several important departments, and we worked hard to be ready for Dec. 15. Within a few days, we have now vaccinated hundreds of our employees, and soon we will be able to give vaccine to others.
I got my shot on the first day. It was not just for me. It was for my wife. It was for my colleagues at work. It was for my family. And it was for my friends and my neighborhood.
We know the COVID-19 vaccines have been developed with the best science available and have passed the careful scrutiny of regulators. I have conducted many vaccine trials in children and adults during my career and, without fail, when vaccines have been approved for use, they have all led to reduction or almost complete elimination of the disease. As an infectious disease physician, I would be more than happy to have my job eliminated if we could prevent all infectious diseases with vaccines.
Sadly, my wife could not benefit from the COVID-19 vaccine, but moving forward, let there be no more deaths or disruption of lives due to this pandemic. Get the vaccine when it is available to you. If you are sure you do not want the vaccine or if you are unsure, please speak with someone who has been hospitalized due to COVID-19 or who has lost a loved one to the pandemic before you make up your mind.
Please follow the vaccine science and the advice of health care professionals. Let the vaccine offer us fresh hope for this Christmas and the New Year of 2021.
Patel is director of Infection Control and Healthcare Epidemiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
This week I was vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, which brought to mind some frequently asked questions about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
I am a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia, where I care for patients with COVID-19 and conduct research on how best to prevent, diagnose and treat this new infection. As I interact with patients in the hospital, some mothers and expectant mothers have asked whether it is safe for them to take the vaccine. Here is what I have said to them.
1) Can I get vaccinated if I am pregnant or breastfeeding?
Yes, you can and should get a COVID-19 vaccine if you are either pregnant or breastfeeding.
An important reason is that COVID-19 is more severe during pregnancy. In a study of 23,000 pregnant women with symptomatic COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported pregnant women were 3 and 2.9 times more likely to end up in the ICU or on mechanical ventilation, respectively. I find it reassuring, though, that the absolute risk remains low. Only about one out of 100 pregnant women with COVID-19 is admitted to an ICU.
Vaccines are, in general, safe and well tolerated during pregnancy.
Neither the Pfizer nor Moderna COVID-19 vaccine contains the live SARS-CoV-2 virus, so there is no risk of the pregnant woman or her fetus developing COVID-19. These vaccines are safe for another reason. The mRNA used in both vaccines to stimulate a protective immune response never enters the nucleus of a cell. That means it doesnt interact with the DNA that encodes the human genome of the mother or fetus.
The caveat is that safety data is lacking for the COVID-19 vaccines, because pregnant women were intentionally excluded in the phase 3 studies of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
In the absence of clinical trial data on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in pregnant and breastfeeding women, but with the expectation that these vaccines should be safe in these populations, both the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have recommended that vaccination be a personal decision of women who are pregnant.
For pregnant women who decide to be vaccinated, any fever associated with vaccination should be treated with acetaminophen, since fever has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes.
There is no concern that the vaccines will interfere with lactation and no reason not to be vaccinated if you are breastfeeding.
2) Will I be protected from asymptomatic infection?
Initial data shows 60% protection from asymptomatic infection after the first dose of the Moderna mRNA vaccine. It is likely Pfizer will also protect from asymptomatic infection, but this has not yet been shown. This means that your risk of getting an asymptomatic infection is reduced by more than half after the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Subjects in the phase 3 study had nasal swabs taken at the time of the second dose of the vaccine. Of these, 14 of the 15,000 volunteers in the vaccine group and 38 of 15,000 subjects in the placebo group experienced SARS-CoV-2 infection without symptoms which is called asymptomatic COVID-19.
This is evidence that asymptomatic infections are being prevented even after only the first dose. This is wonderful news, as vaccine-induced protection from asymptomatic infection will facilitate herd immunity and the end of the pandemic.
3) Will new versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus succumb to the vaccine?
Fortunately all of the versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus identified to date are neutralized by the COVID-19 vaccines.
The primary way that these vaccines act is by preventing the spike protein on the exterior of the coronavirus from attaching to the ACE2 protein on human cells.
The vaccines do this by triggering the human immune system to produce anti-spike antibodies that attach to the spike protein whenever they encounter it and neutralize the virus.
All 17 versions of the virus tested so far have been neutralized, including the variant that is most common in the United States.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Licenced as Creative Commons - attribution, no derivatives.
Arcata Fire Personnel receiving 1st dose by Yolanda Stevens
Press release from Mad River Community Hospital:
It has been nothing short of an extraordinary effort of cooperation between Mad River Community Hospital (MRCH) and multiple agencies in Humboldt County to administer over 300 vaccines to Hospital Tier 1A Staff, with an additional 250 plus vaccines to 13 front line agencies staff to date. This has been such a hard year, really dark, it is nice to be able to literally inject some hope for better times to come, says Tina Wood RN BSN CCRN, Critical Care Manager, MRCH, after administering the first COVID-19 Vaccine in Humboldt County. Vaccines were administered at the hospital to Tier 1A MRCH Employees and those that administer the vaccines with the remaining Tier 1A staff vaccinated within the following days.
The allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines requires each frontline agency must submit to an arduous application process. The Humboldt County Public Health (HCPH) notifies MRCH of available doses and approved agencies, which are picked up through an elaborate process then administered following CDC guidelines. When asked about the experience after receiving his vaccine, Justin McDonald, Fire Chief, Arcata Fire District said, It was painless and we really appreciate Mad River Hospital for hosting all of the first responders.
MRCH is following CDPH/CDC tier protocols for purposes of prioritizing distribution of the vaccine. At this time we are wrapping up Tier 1A, which includes front line workers. In response to the vaccine clinics, Sean Robertson, Fire Chief, Humboldt Bay Fire had this to say, Humboldt Bay Fire is very appreciative to County Public Health and Mad River Hospital for delivering Covid-19 vaccinations in such a rapid and efficient manner. This is a great step in protecting our front-line firefighters who operate in a high-risk environment on a daily basis, as well as to our community on the long road to recovering from this devastating year. We are still a long way yet, and the best practices to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our local economy remain to wear a mask, maintain physical distancing, and wash hands.
For more information about how early doses of the vaccine will be allocated in California, please view the state guidelines here: http://ow.ly/9OJl50CTBTL
By Rolf Boone
The Olympian
Vaccinations are set to begin next week at long-term care facilities in Washington state that have registered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a state health official said Wednesday during a media briefing.
Michele Roberts, the acting assistant secretary whos leading COVID-19 vaccine planning and distribution at the state Department of Health, said those vaccinations will begin Dec. 28.
Vaccines wont be distributed more widely beyond high-risk health care workers, first responders and residents and staff at long-term care facilities until at least the end of January, she said.
Roberts also updated the number of vaccine doses received so far. The state received 30,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine last week and expects 44,850 doses this week. Next week, the state expects to receive 57,525 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 44,300 doses of the Moderna vaccine, the second approved vaccine which also is administered in two doses, Roberts said.
The state initially expected about 400,000 doses this month, but now that number is closer to 330,000, she said.
Roberts explained the discrepancy, saying prior allocations were inadvertently based on vaccine doses produced, not doses cleared through a quality control process.
Meanwhile, the state is starting to see a downturn in the number of new COVID-19 cases, said Dr. Scott Lindquist, the states epidemiologist for communicable diseases.
Thurston County reported just 22 positive cases on Wednesday. The state Department of Health on Tuesday reported 1,252 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 25 new deaths. The daily confirmed figure is lower than the 2,000-per-day counts recently reported by the state.
Its very promising news, but were not out of the woods yet, Lindquist said about the trend.
Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID-19 response, said the state avoided a post-Thanksiving spike in positive cases, and she strongly urged residents to limit in-person holiday celebrations to only immediate households.
Dr. Umair Shah, the new state Secretary of Health, reminded everyone to wear a mask, to wash hands and to keep a safe distance from people outside their households.
OAK CREEK Dressed as an elf, Routt County Public Health Director Roberta Smith spent a cold but sunny Christmas Eve morning administering COVID-19 vaccines to health care workers and frontline responders at South Routt Medical Center.
Ken Rogers, district manager of the medical center in Oak Creek, received the first vaccine of the day and the first Moderna vaccine administered in Routt County. The vaccines are part of the initial batch of 100 Moderna doses received this week by the public health department.
Rogers said he didnt even feel the shot, but emotionally, he said it felt wonderful.
It is great this is out there, and we want to show the vaccine is safe for everyone, Rogers said.
The Thursday clinic was the first place vaccines have been administered in Routt County outside of UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs.
While the Pfizer vaccines can be kept on recharged dry ice for five days outside of the ultra-low freezer, the Moderna vaccines are logistically much easier and can be stored in a regular freezer. They also can be drawn directly from the vial and dont need to go through the same reconstitution process.
Frontline health care workers who dont work at the hospital began receiving vaccines Wednesday, along with some long-term care staff, dental workers and EMS personnel.
Steamboat hospital staff began vaccines Dec. 17.
All of the Steamboat Emergency Center staff who wanted a vaccine received one Wednesday, said physician/owner Dr. Dallas Bailes.
Bailes noted the center has unintentionally become a popular COVID-19 testing center, often bringing in people who cant get tested elsewhere or want it done quickly.
At one point, we were turning away 50 people a day, he said.
Just in the past few days between when the vaccine was available to hospital health care workers but not yet to the emergency center staff there were at least 12 positive COVID-19 cases that came through the doors.
We are getting positives every day, Bailes said.
On getting the vaccine himself, Bailes said he was comfortable with the science.
The benefits outweigh any risk in continuing to do what I do without having any protection, Bailes said.
Rogers also talked about the daily contact his team has with potentially positive COVID-19 patients, especially given they offer testing every day and have tested more than 1,300 people.
South Routt dentist Dr. Reanna Messer said she was excited to receive her shot from Smith on Thursday.
Its a good step toward normality, Messer said.
Messer said she did have some hesitancy at first about the vaccine, but once she did her own reading and research on the clinical trials, she felt comfortable. Messer also noted dentists and dental hygienists are some of the highest risk people because every day, they are generating aerosols from the mouths of their patients.
For the more rural South Routt population where there have been fewer cases than Steamboat, Rogers noted in recent weeks the pandemic has hit closer to home, with most everyone now knowing someone who contracted the virus.
He also emphasized the importance of health care professionals displaying confidence in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
We practice evidence and science-based medicine, Rogers said.
Rogers said South Routt Medical Center receives numerous calls from people wanting to get vaccinated, and they are keeping a list though that is in no way a list of who will get the vaccine first, as the details for administering the next phase of the vaccine are still being worked out.
With some leftover vaccines from the mornings allotment, Smith said shed be calling Caseys Pond to see about covering more of their staff, who began receiving vaccines Wednesday.
Smith said Walgreens is scheduled to begin the first vaccinations of Caseys Pond residents Monday. At this time, the local Walgreens, which is contracted with the federal government, is starting only with the Doak Walker House.
It is not known when the rest of the residents the assisted living and residential living groups will begin getting vaccines, which also includes the 13 residents at The Haven in Hayden.
On Monday, Smith said she will work with UCHealth staff to determine where to best utilize the hospitals allocation of 200 Moderna vaccines and determine whether some of those will be transferred to the public health department.
There are a lot more people in category 1B, Smith noted, which covers health care workers with less direct contact and first responders.
The county will soon be offering vaccines to staff and inmates at correctional facilities, and law enforcement who did not receive a vaccine this week.
Smith said her team wont be waiting on Walgreens to get more of Caseys Pond and The Haven residents vaccinated, provided they have the supply of vaccines ready to go.
If all the vaccines allotted to Walgreens for long-term care arent needed once they do come available, Smith said she is sure they will be needed elsewhere, and the contract between Walgreens and the government is not a barrier for public healths goal to get the 1A group covered as quickly as possible.
As the shipments of the vaccine become more regular, Smith said the process should move smoothly as they begin Phase 2 of administration, which includes, among others, people over 65 and with high-risk health conditions, grocery store workers and school staff and people living in high-density settings.
People will also soon be able to go to their private providers for the vaccine, she said, including the South Routt Medical Center.
On why Smith elected to stick a needle into some arms herself Thursday and Friday, I love it, she said. Its fun to be a nurse again and not sit on Zoom calls all day.
Asked if shed be giving out any shots on Christmas Day, No, Smith said. I need to knit.
To reach Kari Dequine Harden, call 970-871-4205, email kharden@SteamboatPilot.com or follow her on Twitter @kariharden.
It's best to wear a mask, even after you get vaccinated.
This month, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in the US. Since Dec. 14, the COVID-19 vaccine doses have started being administered throughout the states. If you think that after you receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, you won't have to worry about wearing a mask or social distancing, think again.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it's important to continue following the protection guidelines in place while experts learn more about the protection the COVID-19 vaccines provide, the possibility of vaccinated people continuing to spread the disease and more about immunity and reinfection if someone has recovered from COVID-19.
Learn smart gadget and internet tips and tricks with CNET's How To newsletter.
Here's what health experts and the CDC have to say about why you need to continue wearing a mask and social distancing after you get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Read more: COVID-19 vaccines are safe, even without long-term data
Now playing: Watch this: Will a COVID-19 vaccine be a triumph of science or soul-searching?
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The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines come in two doses -- the first shot starts building protection, while the second shot is needed to get the most protection the vaccine has to offer against the coronavirus, according to the CDC.
The first shot has been proven to be highly effective, Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer of Wexner Medical Center, told CNET. He said the second dose amplifies the protection and will extend the life of immunity.
After you receive the second shot, your body needs time to build the protection needed to fight the virus. It could take up to two weeks for your COVID-19 vaccine to begin protecting you against the coronavirus, according to the CDC. During that time, it's important to keep yourself and those around you safe by continuing to socially distance and wear a mask when around people outside your household.
You may not get full protection from the coronavirus right away.
Because the coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccine are both so new, there's not enough evidence at this point to know if people can still carry the coronavirus pathogens and pass them along to others without being infected themselves.
"This gives enough time for the virus to grow in the respiratory passages and spread the infection to others, all while the body is fighting its own infection, aided by the vaccine," Gonsenhauser told CNET.
There's a lack of data that shows whether or not a vaccinated individual can spread the virus after becoming infected, and a person could potentially be an asymptomatic carrier, he added.
"While the vaccine is highly effective, there's still a slim chance -- 5 to 10% -- that after someone gets vaccinated, they could become infected," Gonsenhauser said. However, more data could become available as scientists and doctors learn more about the effects of the vaccine on COVID-19.
Read more: COVID-19 reinfection: Can you get the coronavirus more than once? What we know so far
Until experts fully understand the protection a COVID-19 vaccine provides, it's important to continue wearing a mask and following social distancing protocols, the CDC says. This can help prevent the coronavirus spread among communities of people until more of the population is vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Wearing a mask is "adding on the protection of the vaccination," Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said Dec. 14 on a CBS radio affiliate. The CDC says that together, wearing a face mask and getting vaccinated will offer the best protection from getting and spreading COVID-19.
"The immune response, including duration of immunity, to COVID-19 is not yet understood," the CDC says.
More research is needed to determine how likely you are to get reinfected, and the CDC says "it's not known what antibody levels are needed to protect against reinfection."
The defenses the body gains against the virus during and after infection seem to fade relatively quickly, making it difficult to achieve herd immunity over a longer period of time, according to Dr. William Haseltine, a former professor of Harvard Medical School who is renowned for his work on the human genome and HIV/AIDS.
"The bigger concern is someone becoming reinfected with the same variant of COVID-19, not getting sick themselves, but still being contagious to others. You can get infected twice and be asymptomatic the second time around, and still carry it and transmit it to other more vulnerable people around you," said John V. Williams, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh.
So far, there have been very few cases of reinfection of the coronavirus. In fact, reported cases of reinfection with COVID-19 remain rare, according to the CDC. However, if COVID-19 is like other types of coronaviruses, such as the common cold, reinfection will become more prevalent as time goes on, according to Scientific American.
Reinfection of COVID-19 is a possibility.
It's going to take months or longer for enough of the population to be vaccinated to start seeing case numbers go down substantially. Therefore, it's important to continue wearing masks whenever you're around people outside your household.
"If after getting vaccinated, people stop wearing their masks, other people who haven't been vaccinated could start thinking masks aren't necessary anymore," Gonsenhauser said of social behavior. If those unvaccinated people have the virus, they can spread it faster by not wearing a mask.
Read more: COVID-19 vaccine card is not an immunity passport. Here's the difference
People in smaller groups are less likely to wear masks when together, according to a Vox survey first published in November. Thirty two percent of respondents said they don't wear a mask when attending a sit-down gathering.
"Masks are a key measure to suppress transmission and save lives," the World Health Organization says. If 95% of the public wears a mask, tens of thousands of lives could be saved, according to a Nature Medicine study from October.
Despite the COVID-19 vaccines being proven safe, some Americans may avoid vaccination. Incorrect coronavirus vaccine myths and other misinformation have falsely claimed that the vaccine will include government-tracking microchips or be forcefully administered by the military. This is not true.
Some may be wrongly concerned that the vaccine was developed too quickly to be safe. Both vaccines in the US have undergone extensive clinical trials and have been proven to be 94% and 95% effective, well over the 90% efficacy threshold required.
While a vaccine won't completely stop the pandemic in its tracks, it's the direct route to herd immunity. However, in order to get there, more people will need to get the coronavirus vaccine. And, due to a limited number of doses, not everyone is able to get the coronavirus vaccine all at once. In fact, depending on which group you're in, you may be waiting until at least April to get the vaccine, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert -- if not later.
If a significant portion of the population refuses to take the vaccine, we will likely not see numbers of new cases decrease as rapidly as we'd like, says Gonsenhauser. He says he and other medical providers are doing everything they can to remind people how safe the vaccine is -- from bringing relatable and accessible information to communities who have different oppositions to distrust the vaccine, to help them make better-informed decisions.
Some people may think it's okay not to wear a mask after getting COVID-19.
Currently, there's not enough information at this time to determine if or when the majority of the population can safely stop wearing masks and avoid close contact with others to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the CDC says, but it will likely come down to the numbers.
When there are enough observable changes, such as cases dropping and the threat levels of community spread sharply falling. When that happens, medical experts can redetermine the need for mask-wearing. However, it could be well into 2021 before that happens.
"We would need to see a dramatic decrease in the number of new cases per 100,000 of the population after enough vaccines have been administered," Gonsenhauser said.
For more information, here are the COVID-19 vaccine side effects and what we know so far, and hidden medical charges you could encounter after getting the vaccine. Also, here's where you can get the COVID-19 vaccine when it's your turn.
Now playing: Watch this: Vaccines, antibody tests, treatments: The science of...
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The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
For many years, Martinique Moron had a fear of needles. But once the 32-year-old got a job that required her to be vaccinated against the flu each year, she had to adapt.
I found that talking through it usually helps, said Moron, who works as a therapist and social worker at LoveHugh LLC in St. Petersburg.
With daily headlines sharing the news about coronavirus vaccines being delivered and administered to thousands of patients in Florida and around the world right now, it could make someone who has a fear of needles a little on edge.
None of her Morons patients have expressed a fear of needles when discussing the coronavirus vaccines during therapy. Still, trypanophobia an intense fear of needles is common and may be a barrier to some who would otherwise get vaccinated against COVID-19.
According to study from the University of Michigan, roughly 16 percent of adult patients avoided the flu vaccine because of a fear of needles. Nearly 27 percent of hospital employees avoided it for the same reason. About 18 percent of nursing home employees chose not to get vaccinated because of this fear.
For patients with trypanophobia, healthcare workers recommend a variety of tips, from researching the vaccine needles to communicating with the medical professionals who will be administering the shot.
Moron said the fear of needles is typically a form of anxiety. Patients should try to investigate the deeper roots of this fear in order to understand and overcome it. Moron also recommended speaking with a physician who can walk the patient through the vaccination process and discuss what to expect.
Practicing ones reaction to the injection can help, Moron said, as well focusing on the long-term benefits one gets in exchange for the short term pain caused by a needle.
The long-term goal is that you got the vaccine, Moron said.
Two vaccines have received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and are being administered in Florida. Pfizer-BioNTechs drug trial of 38,000 volunteers found that 95 percent of those who received the vaccine generated enough antibodies to protect them from coronavirus within seven days of receiving their second dose. Modernas vaccine was found to be 94 percent effective against coronavirus starting two weeks after the second injection.
Carleah East, a clinical psychotherapist and CEO of S.M.I.L.E. Psychology in St. Petersburg, said social and cultural attitudes toward needles can contribute to the fear.
You may have had a bad experience, she said. Some people may have had an allergic reaction or an unpleasant interaction with a health care worker that makes them wary of vaccinations, East said.
She recommended watching videos of injections to help overcome the fear. She also suggested comparing the short pain of a vaccination to other day-to-day pains such as back pain, muscle spasms and cramps in order to put things in perspective.
Before getting vaccinated, East also suggested thinking about ones personal reaction to shots: someone who has a history of fainting should try to tense up during the vaccine, while someone who tenses up during vaccines should practice breathing strategies to help them relax. Looking away from the needle and counting down to the injection can also help, she said.
Some of the fear of needles may come from feeling powerless, but patients do have control in deciding to take a vaccine, East said.
In actuality you are making the choice, she said.
For patients who have concerns about the safety of the coronavirus vaccines, East suggests researching them and the companies that make them, so they can be fully informed.
As a nurse practitioner with BayCare, Michele Smith has been involved in administering the Moderna vaccine in the Tampa Bay area. Smith said patients should talk to their doctor if have a specific need, like if theyre squeamish at the sight of blood or prefer to lie down when getting an injection.
Its important for them to communicate that, she said.
When Smith administers a vaccine, she tries to put the patient at ease by talking with them beforehand and preparing the injection out of their sight.
Its over before they have much time to think about it, she said.
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Dr. Peter Salk was one of the first children to receive his dad's polio in 1953. Here's what he thinks could happen with the COVID-19 vaccines. USA TODAY
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. RobertaO'Shaughnessy remembers the day she rolled up her little school-uniform sleeve and became a "Polio Pioneer," among the first to get Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine trial.
It was June 1954 and O'Shaughnessy then known as Roberta Van Tassell was a 7-year-oldabout to finish the second grade inMount Kisco, New York.
Now 74 and living in New Hartford, New York,O'Shaughnessy's strongest memory from that day isn't how she felt about being a pioneer or if she was nervous about the shot or even whether her parents had been living in constant fear of her contracting polio. Back then, polio was a constant cloud hanging over summer months, the dreaded "polio season" that could mean paralysis and leg braces or life in an iron lung.
"If they were nervous, they never said anything to us children," she said.
Roberta O'Shaughnessy, of New Hartford, New York, holds the Polio Pioneer card she was given after she rolled up her sleeve to receive the new polio vaccine in June 1954. Then called Roberta Van Tassell, a 7-year-old second-grader at St. Francis of Assisi School, she remembers being marched down Main Street from the school to Mount Kisco Elementary School on Hyatt Drive, lining up in the school gym with classmates to be among the first to get Dr. Salk's polio vaccine.(Photo: Robert O'Shaughnessy)
As the coronavirus vaccine rolls out and goes into the arms of Americans starting with medical teams and senior citizens it's worth pausing to consider the trailblazing trial that made it possible.
The Salk vaccine lifted decades of fear, created the bedrock process for determining if a vaccine works, and gave rise to now-universal grassroots fundraising efforts employed in the fight against disease.
The vaccine also worked; it allbut wiped out polio.
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More: Police, firefighters, teachers will be next in line for COVID-19 vaccine
Don't cut in line for the COVID vaccine.Elites who do will be named and shamed.
The coronavirus vaccine stands on the shoulders of Salk's work, saidDr. Rahul Gupta, senior vice president and chief medical and health officer at The March of Dimes, which began as a campaign by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Roosevelt contracted polio at 39, in 1921, and lost the use of his legs. He became a champion for finding a vaccine to prevent other outbreaks.
Between 1938 and 1955, when Salk's vaccine was approved, the March of Dimes raised $230 million and gave direct aid to more than 335,000 people with polio to pay hospital, medical and rehabilitation expenses, said March of Dimes spokeswoman Christine Sanchez.
Much of that was raised a dime at a time, and mailed to Roosevelt at the White House slipped into envelopes that were exempt from postage.
President Franklin Roosevelt and Basil OConnor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, count donated dimes at the White House, circa 1938.(Photo: March of Dimes)
Roosevelt did not live to see Salk's vaccine. He died on April 12, 1945, at Warm Springs, Georgia, site of his little White House and a rehabilitation hospital where he welcomed polio victims to playand spend time with others who shared their experiences.
From the first major American outbreak, in the summer of 1916, until the vaccine was approved, on April 12, 1955, polio was a terrifying reality every summer. Those stricken by the virus could lose the use of their arms and legs.
If their lungs were affected, it meant life in an iron lung, a pressurized tube whose whoosh became a fact of life, the breath of life. Archival photos show wards filled with rows of children in iron lungs.
Historian Geoffrey C. Ward remembers living under the terror as a boy in Hyde Park, on the south side of Chicago. The eldest of three children, he remembers newspapers printing the addresses of homes where polio cases were confirmed.
July to September was polio season. And everybody, the way people look up baseball scores, during that period, they looked every morning to see how bad it was. Parents did. Certainly my mother did.
Ward, the author of many books, including four on Franklin Roosevelt, has teamed with filmmaker Ken Burns writing award-winning documentaries including The Civil War to Baseball to The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, to name a few. He has won five Emmy Awards.
He describes his mother as a take-charge, but anxious woman who lived in fear of polio and laid down a long list of things that were off limits each summer.
"We couldn't go to the zoo. We couldn't go to the beach, for the most part. You didn't know where you would encounter it and she was absolutely terrified all the time," Ward said.
Ward's mother's worst fears were realized in the late summer of 1950, when her eldest son contracted polio at the age of 9.
During PBS The Roosevelts: An Intimate History session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 22, writer Geoffrey C. Ward, left, and filmmaker Ken Burns discuss the interwoven stories of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. (Photo: courtesy photo)
"[My best friendand I] got it the same morning," Ward remembered."I went to the hospital for three months. He had no symptoms at all and had no effect. He is still my best friend."
"The word 'capricious' is really useful. It was a capricious disease. It could crush your lungs or have no effect at all. It just depended entirely on chance."
Ward's mother lived to be 100 andnever forgave herself, Ward said, trying to identify her lapse, "the one hole in the wall that allowed it to happen."
When the vaccine was unveiled, Ward was living with his family in India his father was an executive with the Ford Foundation.
I remember seeing Ed Murrow interview Salk and asking him if he was going to patent the vaccine and Salk said something like: How can you patent the sun?" Ward said. "I find Jonas Salk an incredibly impressive man."
Salk's polio vaccine wasn't a cure for polio, Ward pointed out. It could not reverse the debilitating damage it had done. But it could, and did, stop polio in its tracks.
"He didn't invent anything, he made it work. And somehow among snarky scientists, that means he's a lesser person. But he figured out how to make that stuff. And my brother and sister didn't get polio, so I'm grateful to him."
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A vaccine doesn't stop a virus. A vaccination does. People have to take the vaccine to make it effective. For polio, taking the vaccine was a national priority and a dream realized. There was no question that children would take the vaccine.
And there was no question it worked.
The year Ward contracted polio, 1950, there were 33,000 cases. Two years later, the virus hit its all-time high: 52,000 cases. Then came the vaccine in 1955. By 1962, there were just 886 cases.
Salk's science is now how vaccines are developed, said Gupta.
"The Salk field trialincluded the largest trial in U.S. history, with 1.8 million children," Gupta said.
Dr. Jonas Salk examines blood samples from the 1954 field trial at the Virus Research Laboratory of the University of Pittsburgh, 1954.(Photo: March of Dimes)
"And Salk created the standardized double-blind placebo process, that has become the bread and butter of every clinical trial. That's where it began. There was a placebo population and a vaccine population. It hadn't been that way prior to that."
When she took part in the trail, little Roberta Van Tassell received, for her troubles, a "Polio Pioneer" card that bore the name of Basil O'Connor, the head of The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. She still has the card.
O'Connor, a Wall Street lawyer, was an unlikely candidate to champion the cause except that he was a loyal friend, and former law partner, of Roosevelt.
Also ground-breaking was O'Connor's March of Dimes grassroots campaign not asking government to fund the research and care for those affected by infantile paralysis.
There were giant Roosevelt birthday galas held, as many as 6,000 one year, in cities and towns across the country. It was not a celebration of the president, but a way of helping others and boosting a cause that he championed.
Hollywood joined the fight, with magazine and newspaper ads and newsreels. Everyone from Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland to Eddie Cantor got involved. It was Cantor who coined the term "March of Dimes," a nodto a newsreel called "The March of Time."
Movies were paused to pass a pail for pocket change, anything patrons could spare.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, senior vice president and and chief medical and health officer at The March of Dimes, says the coronavirus vaccine owes much to Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, which was funded a dime at a time through a grassroots effort, not by government funds.(Photo: March of Dimes)
O'Shaughnessy said she has spent her life being inoculated against one disease or another, from all the regular childhood immunizations to the Salk trials to typhoid and typhus shots required when she traveled to Germany in the '60s.
She gets the flu shot every year, and has gotten shots for pneumonia and the old and new shingles vaccines.
It's surprising, then, to hear the polio pioneer say will wait before getting the COVID vaccine.
"I know this vaccine has probably been tested, but I guess the title 'Warp Speed' has thrown off a bunch of people," she said. "I thought it really did not go throughenough scientific testing like the others have, but maybe it did. I will probably get it in the summer after it has been tested on more people."
Gupta, with the March of Dimes, said he realizes that our nation is divided, that there are some who question the speed with which the vaccine reached the market.
Yes, the vaccines were created quickly, he said, but "there is every indication at this point, despite a lot of scrutiny, that no corners were cut."
Still, he said, he fully expects setbacks and issues with the roll-out.
The storefront at Ack-Par Realty in Waldwick, New Jersey, became a billboard of gratitude to Dr. Jonas Salk for the polio vaccine, 1955(Photo: March of Dimes)
"Science is always messy," he said. "If you could get from point A to point B directly in science, we could do it easy, but the fact of the matter is, it's often a zigzag path. We're going to see issues of allocation. We're going to see issues of distribution. We're going to see some side effects. These things are expected. These are not unexpected issues."
When the polio vaccine was rolled out, it was administered to a united country, a community that came together, he said.
"We have to be able to unite around this particular success that we've had as a nation. This is nothing less than a success that we've had as a nation in having vaccines in less than a year."
Vaccinations shouldn't be politicized, he said.
"It's not a Republican vaccine. This is not a Democrat vaccine. This is a vaccine to save lives, lives that we cannot afford to lose. We're losing thousands a day."
Ward shows not a moment's hesitation when asked if he'll get the shot.
"You bet. I can hardly wait," he said. "When 80-year-olds come up on the thing, I'm there. We can't live like this. I've been to the dentist twice. That's the extent of my travel since March."
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With a coronavirus vaccine right around the corner, it feels like we are almost out of the woods. Don't get ahead of yourselfaccording to the BBC, healthy Americans under the age of 65 won't start getting the vaccine at least until April, with the inoculation efforts stretching throughout 2021. We still have months ahead of us and still have plenty of time to contract COVID-19 if we let our guard down, which is why it's important to find ways to combat the viruslike this one drink to weaken COVID.
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Here's why, and for more tips during COVID, here's The One Vitamin Doctors Are Urging Everyone to Take Right Now.
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According to Healthline, pumpkin seed milk has officially been studied in U.S. clinical trials exploring zinc's effect on reducing coronavirus symptomsand has been proven to reduce inflammation and improve one's immune system. Even if you don't have COVID-19 symptoms, the drink helps promote bone, urinary, and prostate health among several other factors, making it an exciting, healthy drink to keep an eye on.
If you test positive for COVID-19, follow the advice of the Harvard School of Health and self-isolate as soon as you can and avoid contact with other family members or roommates. If you begin having trouble breathing or feel like you run out of breath easily, visit the emergency room as soon as possible.
If you have mild symptoms, a glass of pumpkin seed milk might have you back on your feet sooner than expected. Even when you start feeling better, incorporating a glass of this hot, new beverage might be just the thing you need to stay healthy.
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Chipotle Mexican Grill CEO Brian Niccol said Tuesday that the company will "strongly encourage" employees to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that foodservice workers are placed next in line to receive the inoculation during phase 1c of vaccine distribution. They fall behind the elderly and essential workers, like mail carriers and bus drivers, who are currently being prioritized for vaccination.
As of Monday morning, 614,117 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, according to CDC data. Roughly 4.6 million doses have been distributed so far.
But some restaurants, like Chipotle, are wary about the legal implications of requiring their workers to receive the vaccine.
"As of right now, we're not going to mandate it," Niccol said on CNBC's "Closing Bell."
He added that the company will cover the costs associated with receiving the vaccine for employees.
Other chains that won't require a vaccination include Cousins Subs, a Wisconsin-based sandwich restaurant. The company cited concerns about infringing employees' medical rights.
Shares of Chipotle, which has a market value of $39.7 billion, have risen 69% so far in 2020. The company's investments in its digital business have paid off during the pandemic, helping it recover much faster than the broader restaurant industry.
