As an employee of a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), I was in the first tier of health care providers designated by New York State to receive the Covid vaccine. I got my first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Monday and I was beyond grateful. As I understand it, most providers in our centers felt the same way. But about 50% of the other workers declined, despite encouragement and reassurances about safety from our medical director, who of course, led by example. It’s hard for me to understand. These are people who have face to face contact with potentially contagious patients and know first-hand how hard hit our community health centers have been. Our positivity rates are always much higher than the county’s, this week nearing 30%.
How I wish my husband had been able to get the shot at the same time, but even with a medical condition that could make him more vulnerable, he could not. In fact, at the end of this week. our centers have to gather the unused vaccine supply and give it back to the state to be redistributed. Some might take exception to this, reasoning that we could have used the supply to protect our most vulnerable patients. But our state is strictly operating from the top down, vaccinating the health care workers so they will be able to care for the sick. I think of it like the airline safety rule about putting on your own oxygen mask before helping someone else. I’m okay with it.
My response to the vaccine was minimal: a sore arm for about 48 hours and maybe a tad less energy the day after. And you know, I was glad to have some reaction which could signify a robust (at least adequate) immune response. I’ll feel as if I have some protection in 2 weeks.
Just heard that Biden is planning on releasing more vaccine instead of reserving the second doses as is the case now. More people will be able to get that first dose, which is good. My extrapolation from the studies available is that after about two weeks following dose one, the vaccine might be at least 50% effective, so from a community health standpoint, it makes sense. The risk is that there will not be enough second doses three to four weeks down the line. I still think this is okay. If the second dose is delayed by a few weeks, the only harm will be the first group will be less than fully protected. At least more people will be partially protected. And Moderna indicates they will be ramping up production.
In all of this, the decisions we make today are based on the information we have at the time. There’s a lot missing but we really have no choice. And no certainty. We all just have to do the best we can.