Latest / The SHEA Podcast / COVID-19: Perspectives From Healthcare Professionals Who Have Received the Vaccine, 1/7/21

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COVID-19: Perspectives From Healthcare Professionals Who Have Received the Vaccine, 1/7/21 · The SHEA Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Rapid Response Podcast brought to you by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Shay, promoting the prevention of healthcare associated infections and antibiotic resistance and seeking to advance the field of healthcare epidemiology and antibiotic stewardship.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Dr.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Jennifer Hanrahan, infectious disease specialist at the University of Toledo, and I will serve as your moderator.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: The discussion on the podcast does not reflect Shay's perspective, but facilitates communication of multiple perspectives and experiences as we go through this challenging time together.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Shay is excited to launch this episode of the podcast, COVID-19 updates, What We Know Now.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: Today's discussion will focus on perspectives from healthcare professionals who have received the COVID-19 vaccine.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: Our speakers today are Dr.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Eli Perenzevich, infectious disease physician and epidemiologist with the University of Iowa Harvard College of Medicine, and Dr.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Xanthia Wiley, Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship at Emmer University Hospital, Midtown.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you both for joining us today.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Before we start a discussion, I would like to turn it over to Dr.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Bannock to get us started with a brief news and guidance update for the week.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you, Dr.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hanrahan.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: Happy to provide that news and guidance update for this week.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: As of today, there are in the United States over 20,732,000 total cases of COVID-19 and unfortunately 352,464 deaths.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: In the recent news, there's been a lot of attention to new SARS-CoV-2 variants that have been identified.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the CDC has provided an update and some guidance on how to approach these new variants.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: This was published two days ago on January 3rd.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: There is specific attention given to the SARS-CoV-2 B117 variant.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: This was a variant that has an unusually large number of mutations, which has resulted in a mutation in the receptor binding domain of the spike protein.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: This was first identified in England and now has been seen throughout the world, including here in the United States.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: It seems from preliminary epidemiologic indicators that this variant may be associated with increased transmissibility, more efficient and rapid transmission, but there's no evidence at this point to suggest any impact on the severity disease or vaccine efficacy.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Additionally, the CDC has posted an update on another variant of the B1351 lineage, which was a variant that was identified in South Africa and now has become the predominant strain.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this CDC update from the third also provides detailed information as far as what's occurring in the United States for surveillance to detect new and emerging variants.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: This is going to be an important area that we're going to be focusing on in the future.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's another study published in the New England Journal Medicine on December 23rd, which evaluated the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare personnel who were seropositive for SARS-CoV-2, either an anti-spike or an anti-nucleocapsid antibody.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: This was a study that included 12,541 healthcare workers who were followed for up to 31 weeks.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Among this cohort, there were 1,265 who were seropositive.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Among those who were sero-negative, there were 223 individuals who had a new PCR-positive test during that time with a risk of 1.8 per 10,000 days at risk.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, and those who were seropositive, there were only two newly positive individuals by PCR for a risk of 0.13 per 10,000 days at risk, essentially demonstrating that zero positivity on healthcare workers have a substantially lower risk of infection over the subsequent six months compared to those who are sero-negative.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: So providing some reassurance that at least in the short term there may be protection against incident infection.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: In the New England Journal, both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine trials were published at the end of December, December 30th for the Moderna trial, which demonstrated a vaccine efficacy of 94.1%.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Additionally, the following day, the ACIP published its recommendations in the MMWR for the implementation of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: Additionally, on the vaccine front, the CDC issued further interim clinical considerations for vaccination.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I won't go through all these in detail, but they address issues including the incominant use of vaccine and antibody therapies and some clinical considerations pertaining to timing of vaccination following antibody COVID-1919 antibody therapies.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: Additional information on vaccination immunocompromised individuals, as well as contraindications and precautions to vaccination.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: And most recently there was an update pertaining to allergy-related contraindications to specific vaccine components, including sorbitol and polyethylene glycol, as being a contraindication.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: So anyone who's interested in further details should review that intro and issue guidance.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last topic that has garnered a lot of attention pertains to what's happened overseas in the UK.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: So on December 30th, medical officers from the UK Joint Committee on Vaccine Immunization announced that they would extend the interval between the first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from three or four weeks to up to 12 weeks.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: In an effort to maximize the number of people who are vaccinated in the upcoming 12 weeks.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: So this is important information to consider and has garnered a lot of discussion within the healthcare epidemiology community.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Most recently, as of last night, the FDA submitted a statement which continues to support the two specified doses of each vaccine at the specified intervals based on the clinical trial publications.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I anticipate that this topic will garner additional discussion in the upcoming weeks.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's all I have for the update.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Back to you, Dr.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Henrihan, for the moderated discussion.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Dr.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Bannock.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: I now want to move into the discussion with Dr.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Parensevich and Wiley.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you again for taking the time to join the podcast today.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Parensevich, you were part of the Pfizer vaccination trial.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Why did you decide to take part in it?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: And what can you share about your experience?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so thanks for having me on the podcast.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like all of us, I think we all are trying to do as much as we can to help.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as we all know, probably the safest way out of this pandemic is to have an effective vaccine.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And about mid to late July, I heard that Iowa, through our vaccine trial evaluation unit run by Pat Winnaker here, who's an ID physician, was going to be a site for the Pfizer vaccine trial.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so as the phase one data was released and it looked reasonably safe and had a reasonable good chance of being successful with immune response in the phase one, two trial, and kind of became interested in it, started asking questions, asked other folks, and talked to my family about it too.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And it was kind of a family decision.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: My two kids and wife around the dinner table.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: We talked about it and decided I should volunteer because we felt very lucky.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was someone that has health insurance, you know, very privileged to have health insurance and life insurance and kids who are older.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just felt I was kind of the right type of person to volunteer.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we all have risk as healthcare workers.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the kind of folks you want to have in the trial.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I decided with my family to volunteer.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then my experience wasn't that remarkable.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was done at the university.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I just walked over to the trial unit.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the first couple hour visit was filling out and reviewing the consent form.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: They drew blood and tested me for COVID and then gave me the vaccine and observed me for I can't remember 15 or 30 minutes that let me go on my way for that first dose.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I was pretty quickly convinced I got the vaccine, although you never know if your mind's playing tricks on you.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I did have, you know, some local swelling and pain in my arm and then had some chills and felt pretty tired the next day.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: But really, the reactogenicity, you know, the kind of side effects were only that for about the first 24 hours.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: I want to thank you personally because I think that healthcare workers who had the courage to do this initially paved the way for the rest of us to be able to get the vaccine.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it does take some courage to be in that first group.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like you've made this decision, you know, with your family and took this pretty seriously.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I just want to thank you.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I also want to ask you described some side effects after the first dose.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Have you heard about other people having side effects?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, are they having anything more than what you just described?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I mean, this is kind of top of everybody's list, and you'll see everyone posting, you know, on social media picture of themselves getting vaccinated.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit different being in a trial than being someone who gets vaccinated.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: They really wanted us not to take Tylenol or NCEDs, you know, like Advil around the trial, because then we would hide some of the rectogenicity.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so, unlike when you get, you know, your flu vaccine and take Advil or something here.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to highlight that.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I definitely had swelling and some chills.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was strange, no real fever, but felt shaky and a little tired, but really nothing major.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: If you look at the New England Journal and studies published both for the Pfizer, which the trial I was in, and the Moderna trial, it does look like maybe 80% of folks have local side effects, mostly pain at the injection site, which I have.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then 50% have more systemic side effects like being tired, maybe some chills, maybe a low-grade fever.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And some of my colleagues have had those, but they just take Tylenol and it passes within a day or so.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: So they really aren't that major.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: So it sounds like being in the vaccine trial, you actually maybe had more side effects than people may actually end up having, because as you mentioned, because they're going to be able to take medications that you can take.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what we're kind of seeing.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: But certainly you do feel tired the next day.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what's kind of interesting, particularly in the Pfizer trial, it does look like as you get older, your side effects, you know, the reactogenicity is a little bit less.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I think most of us in healthcare are obviously unfortunately not in our 20s or whatever, but we may have less side effects than maybe some of the younger folks.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think the medical students and interns and residents may have more side effects than those of us that are more advanced in our careers.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so since you were part of the trials, have you received your second dose?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so my first dose was the first week in August.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then because the Pfizer trial is 21 days, the last week in August, I got my second dose.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say the side effects are a little bit more after the second dose, but not a lot more.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just the local side effects in the arm, definitely more swelling redness after that dose.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I think folks on healthcare now are just starting to get their second doses.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I saw my chair of medicine day label post on social media today, he was getting a second dose.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it'll be interesting to see if we have some more side effects.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, it's the body responding, kind of ramping up the immune system and cranking out antibodies.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of what you want.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: One day of arm pain for hopefully a few years or more of immunity is worth the trade-off.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think that's a really important point to make when we're encouraging people to get vaccinated.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh has this changed at all how you feel about taking care of COVID patients?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so in some ways, I can definitely speak to that because I was on clinical service right before I was vaccinated and we we had a decent number of cases in the community.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: But then after I was vaccinated in November, I was pretty sure I got the vaccine, as I said, even though I didn't know definitively until I was on blinded.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But my first day of service, the press release of the Pfizer efficacy of 95% was released.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I did feel a huge weight off my shoulders.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I still had to wear the PPE, and we always will wear PPE around COVID-positive patients.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was still wearing, you know, the respirator and face shield and being really careful.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it was nice to know I had a backup because you never know if you're going to be perfect with your fit of the respirator and if you're going to, you know, don and doff all of the PPE correctly.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so I definitely felt some relief and also hope because we were really getting pummeled in November when I was on service.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to see all the healthcare workers around you getting overwhelmed.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was nice to know that there would hopefully be light at the end of the tunnel.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it was both personal relief, but probably more of that, because I'm in healthcare right now, luckily we have good PPE.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I was greatly relieved for our whole country and the world that maybe there's an end to this.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Wiley, you've received your first round of the vaccine.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: What was your experience like?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: And are you feeling any side effects?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so thanks so much for having me.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I completely agree.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: I felt hopeful and it felt wonderful walking up to the vaccine center with all of my colleagues.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: I remember pulling them up, and there were over a hundred people in line.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: And it was the first time in my life that I felt happy to be in line.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_03: It kind of felt like we were all lining up for against COVID.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_03: So my vaccine experience was completely mm-hmm.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: I had a pretty sore mm after the vaccine, and that soreness lasted for 36 hours or so.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_03: It wasn't even sore enough to take a time on the remote room, and I had absolutely no other aspect, which was wonderful.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been great.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think what you both described is it was my experience as well, and most of the healthcare workers I've talked to, the arm soreness is really the only thing, and it goes away with hydroprofen or tyanol.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: And what I'm also saying is it felt safe and I felt reassured as well because we had a section in the building where all of us sat for 15 minutes socially distanced with mass, of course, to make sure that we didn't have any significant side effects after that.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: So it was organized, you know, the energy in the atmosphere was very positive and very hopeful.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: So looking forward to getting my second vaccine this Saturday.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Can you talk about why you decided to receive the vaccine?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Was this a requirement, or did you volunteer, or was it a combination of both?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: So it was not required.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: I definitely volunteered.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_03: And the reason that I volunteered, there are many reasons why.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I think we've all witnessed the global down to the local devastation of this pandemic and seeing so many lives lost and so many families affected by this.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: And also, I was so excited to see such high efficacy of the vaccines.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it exceeds, I think, everyone's expectations, having over 94% effectiveness for both of the vaccines.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: It was also really important for me.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: I am a black woman from the South.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: And watching this devastation in the underrepresented minority communities, in the black community and in our Latinx communities has been particularly hard.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: And seeing the increased hospitalization, seeing the increased death here at my hospital, 76% of the patients with COVID are black.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, 76% of the deaths are black.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I felt that I needed to be first in line to prove to people that I trust the vaccine, I will take it myself, I recommend it for all of my patients, and to be there and to say, yes, I'm here, I received it, and so should you.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: And it's wonderful being able to say, I did it when you're going out in the community and speaking with your fellow healthcare worker to say, This is my experience, my arm was sore, it's very safe.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: So all of those were reasons for my receiving the vaccine.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, Dr.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Wiley, can you speak at all about women who might be concerned about receiving the vaccine during pregnancy?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: There have been a lot of questions about this, and of course, we don't have all the answers yet.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: So, what do you say?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_03: So, what I tell patients is exactly what the CDC is telling us, and what the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, ACOG, are saying, which is essentially that those who are pregnant should choose, that they may choose to be vaccinated, and that mRNA viruses are not thought to be a risk for pregnant women and for the breastfeeding incidents.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Of course, I tell them, you know, have this conversation with your family, have this conversation with your OBGYNs.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought it was really important that ACOD came out, and their statement says that these vaccines should not be withheld from pregnant individuals who meet the criteria for the vaccine.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: And although safety data for vaccines and pregnancy is not currently available, that there is no data indicating that the vaccine should be contraindicated.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I think it's great also that they said that there were no safety signals from the developmental or any reproductive toxicity studies for both user and maternal.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: And what I also want to tell people as well is yes, we do not know any data from pregnant patients with these vaccines, but what we know is that pregnant patients have likely worsened outcomes with premature delivery.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: And if you think about a pregnant woman with associated comorbidity or a pregnant woman who happens to be next or black, these are risks and outcomes that we know of.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: So yes, definitely kind of weigh all of those, but you know, the guidance that we're receiving from ACOG and CDC says that there's nothing to suggest that we withhold these vaccines.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: And also with respect to the sterility, I feel like a lot of these kinds of things that are on social media can make it very clear to people I would like to have children one day and I took the vaccine, that there's no concerns about issues of sterility, and that there's no data, there's no evidence that says that is an issue.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I really like to address the safety, and you know, every few days or so, you know, you're able to say, you know, we vaccinated 275,000 people, and we've only seen six anaphylaxis reactions, and doing that calculation for them, showing them how rare it is, and now being able to say five million people have received the vaccines, that significant side effects are extremely rare.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: I think giving people the information, especially the demonstrating that it's a very small number that are having severe side effects, I think that's a really good way of dealing with it, and also mentioning that even the ones who have had anaphylaxis have been fine.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's also important to mention.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: And something else I think is important, and I started doing is being more proactive about speaking to people about vaccines.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: So rather than waiting until someone asked me, hey, Dr.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: Wiley, what do you think?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: is being proactive and asking them.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I was in my infectious diseases clinic last week and had about 10 patients, most of them H and V patients.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I proactively asked each of them, what do you think about the COVID vaccines?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_03: You tell me what you think first, and then I will tell you what I think.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I was surprised, and it was not surprised.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_03: Only one of my patients said that they were going to receive the vaccine, and this patient was a registered person.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_03: You know, 90% of my patients initially said no, we're not going to receive it.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then after talking to them about why aren't you going to receive it?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: What can I explain and describe to you?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_03: Eight of those notes.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, Dr.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: Wilder.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I think I'm going to get it as well.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: So have any progressive conversations with your patients, even your COVID-negative patients in the hospital, kind of starting a conversation with them, you know, fellow physicians, fellow co-workers, because if they're going to get the texting, fantastic.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: But if not, you kind of want to at least want to know why and what can I tell you about it?
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: Because getting that personal information and personal information from someone that they know and respect and know that cares about them, I think makes a tremendous difference.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it sounds like you've made this your personal mission, which is fantastic.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: I'm doing my best.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think we all are.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Prenzovich, have you been encountering some of this misinformation as well?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: And how are you dealing with it?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have outpatient clinics, so I don't have a panel of patients that I talk to irregularly and mostly do inpatient medicine.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So haven't really approached hesitancy or seen it as much as Dr.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Wiley.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I am pretty active on social media, and so I've used that platform as best as possible.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then locally in the state, I've been talking to local journalists in newspapers and blogs and things to try to get a pushback against a lot of the misinformation out there.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And also acknowledge, as Dr.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Wiley did really nicely, that a lot of this is just vaccine hesitancy.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's not some big anti-vaccine movement, although that definitely, but I think it's overblown.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think most of it's just real hesitancy because it's a new disease, it's a new vaccine.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And most folks, this is really out of their area of expertise.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, all of their hesitancy makes sense.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I've just been trying to kind of explain my experience, we're both doing here, and answer questions as best I can.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I like the idea of kind of getting ahead of things and asking folks more.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll definitely try to do that going forward.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: So as the vaccine is being distributed, Dr.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Wiley, are you noticing that people are becoming laxer with their safe practice behaviors?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: Fortunately, no.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: At least not within the hospital.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, of course, when you stop and get your gas and you see people walking into the gas station without masks on, I think we all kind of cringe a bit.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: But thank goodness, I think our healthcare workers know that you know this fight is not nearly over.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: And yes, we're hopeful most of us are receiving the vaccines, but we cannot become lax at this point.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, still stressing to everyone the importance of the three W's, you still have to wash these hands, still have to wash your distance and do your best to stay six feet apart and wear your masks.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: I think the wonderful thing is I like to say we still have to do the three W's, but we're lucky enough to have the vaccine to hopefully augment that.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I've not seen any changes in the healthcare community, thank goodness.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I hope that the general community remains vigilant as well, because we all have to remain vigilant to get out of this.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Parensevich, do you have any last words for listeners about the vaccine and why they should get it when it's their turn?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely think that all healthcare workers should get the COVID vaccine, whatever variety is available to them.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: There are these two mRNA vaccines, which there's a lot of data now, a lot of experience, even in a short period of time.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: There are very few side effects.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we know with most vaccines, if we're going to see issues, they're very early on.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Historically, people don't have problems with vaccines, you know, a year later.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the concerns that have come up come up pretty quickly after getting the vaccine.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And since we're not seeing that with these vaccines, I think we're becoming more encouraged of their safety going forward.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: So certainly all healthcare workers should get these vaccines.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if there are other listeners, I think it's the safest way out of a pandemic.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: The vaccines just expose us to one protein in this case.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: The mRNA makes one protein and our body makes an immune response to the spike protein.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if we get infected with the full virus, there are many more proteins.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: It can be far more harmful, and obviously you can die or have long-term, you know, we're learning more and more about long-term side effects of the actual virus, the long COVID, if you will.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's our best way to get back to the new normal and get our country going again.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like in a lot of ways, it's one of the most patriotic things you can do is get your vaccine once one's available to you.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Wiley and Dr.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: Parentsevich, thank you so much for joining us today and for giving us this very useful information.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_02: This podcast can be accessed on Shay's online education center, learning CE, under the Rapid Response Program.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: You will also find resources such as the recorded webinars, healthcare facility outbreak preparedness, and the SHA COVID-19 town halls.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: New members can now receive 50% off 2021 SHA membership by using the coupon code WELCOME 2021 until March thirty first.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: This concludes this episode of the Rapid Response Podcast.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for tuning in.