Update on the COVID-19 Vaccine - Dec. 14, 2020

Transcript: Can you give us an update on the status of the vaccine? Sure. I’ll just give a status of what’s currently going on in KFLA and our thinking in regarding the vaccine. As a community in KFL&A, we’ve been able to control the initial surge in March of 2020, as well as in July we had a slight rise, and the beginning of the school year in October, and now heading into December we’re going to a very high-risk time in our community. And it’s really up to us as a community to try and limit the spread and not have ongoing outbreaks. We’ve gotten to a point where, I think, we have some control over the virus. But it really takes everyone to limit the number of contacts that you have, stay within your household, protect those that are vulnerable, wear your mask, good hand hygiene when you can’t socially or physically distance. And we want to go into the holidays with a lower rate of illness, because we know coming out of it that people will have socialized, to some extent, and we may have a rise in January. So, the lower we go into the holidays the better. This trajectory is not the right trajectory, but it’s up to the community. We have a choice to make. Please make the right choices heading into the holiday season. In terms of vaccine for 2021, we’re going to have a slow roll out. So, this is the percentage of the community that’s vaccinated. The preference will be for areas that are in lock down or red zones. Eventually though, KFLA will get vaccine and we’ll slowly, over time, get more and more people protected with the various vaccines that are available until we get 60 to 70 percent of the community vaccinated. When we hit that point, that gives some beginning of herd immunity and potential reduction in the transmission of the virus. So, all of the public health measures that we’ve already put in play, will need to continue to be put in play for most of 2021. It’s very important that our community realize that masking, hand hygiene, social and physical distancing will have to continue until we’ve reached that proportion of the population that has the highest level of protection. And there are a lot of unknowns still about the vaccine strategy, about how long the protection will be. So, we’ll be learning all throughout 2021 of how well the vaccines work, and how well they protect; and whether they actually reduce the risk of transmission of the virus. So, just be prepared mentally that 2021, I would anticipate the full year that we are going to be adhering to the best practices of public health measures to reduce the spread. If you are offered a vaccine, it is also important to know that the two major vaccines: Ppfizer and Moderna. You get an initial immunization on day zero, and that you’ll build some immunity but the second dose, the second booster—especially for Pfizer, is where you’re going to get the maximum protection. So, you’ll have a good boost in your antibody response and your cell-based immunity. And around a week after that is when we start seeing the antibody production taking off, and a level of production that is important. So, from the day you get vaccinated, you still won’t have significant protection until around 28 days after the vaccine is given to you from your initial dose. And it’s two doses that you need. Questions remain that we don’t know how long the vaccine will protect you. We anticipate that it will reduce transmission, but that is still an unknown from a scientific vantage point. Around one in ten individuals do get a sore arm, or get achiness, or low-grade fever, and so you may need to take Tylenol or Advil to reduce that. And the effectiveness of the vaccine outside of randomized control trials will need to be monitored closely. So, yes there’s hope in having vaccines available to us, but yes there’s significant number of questions that remain. And we’ll need to keep good public health measures up for the majority of the year. So, don’t let your guard down thinking the holidays season that the vaccine’s here and that we’ve got a cure: there’s no cure. We are going to have to monitor the effectiveness over the long term but adhere to good public health measures if we’re going to reduce the impact of this virus on our community, on our businesses, and our hospitals, and health system.