Local hospital officials address COVID-19 vaccine questions

Jan. 3—Newly approved COVID-19 vaccines are here, fortifying front-line health care workers and at-risk senior citizens throughout the Joplin area. Health experts project that the immunizations could be available to all Americans sometime in early 2021.

But questions remain about whether the two approved vaccines can protect an immunized person from getting COVID-19 or spreading the virus to others through respiratory secretions.

"Let's see if I can answer that to make it understandable: We don't know," said Donna Stokes, an infection preventionist for Mercy Hospital Joplin. "That's really the answer."

Because the Moderna mRNA-1273 and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are so new, she said, "we still have a lot to learn about how they're going to react and how they're going to provide protection. We really, truly don't know at this point. Those are questions that still, essentially, remain unanswered."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials, along with scientists who helped develop the two vaccines, "are watching this very closely, and they'll certainly continue to do their analysis and research," Stokes said. "Time and study will answer those questions ... and will eventually be able to satisfy all those questions that obviously the public is going to have" concerning the vaccines.

Trial studies of the two vaccines have shown a 95% (Pfizer) and 94.5% (Moderna) protective efficacy rate against the coronavirus.

What those percentages essentially mean is that the vaccines can "provide protection from complications of the virus," Stokes said. "So my (immunized) system will build up antibodies so the virus doesn't attack my system to cause the severe complications that has hospitalized so many people."

Unlike traditional vaccines, both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines rely on a novel approach to vaccination using messenger RNA.

Instead of a tiny piece of the virus being injected into the body, which is how most vaccines work, mRNA is injected into the body and begins programming the immune system to recognize and fight off the coronavirus. This type of vaccine doesn't affect or interact with DNA in any way, according to the CDC, because mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where DNA is kept.

It's still too early to tell if the COVID-19 vaccines will provide long-term protection; experts say additional research is needed to answer this question. Available data suggest that most people who recover from COVID-19 develop an immune response that provides at least some period of protection against reinfection, according to the CDC.

"That is still a bit of an unknown," Stokes said. "It certainly won't be a lifetime immunity."

That means Americans may be heading to their local pharmacy or doctor's office as soon as 2022 to receive their annual COVID-19 shot — just to keep boosting their body's fight against the virus that has killed 352,000 Americans and 1.8 million people worldwide, in much the same way they receive their annual flu shot.

As for masks and face coverings, don't throw those into the trash bin any time soon, Stokes said.

"We're still going to have to have that social distancing, the masks and the hand sanitizing because it's going to take us many months to get the majority of our population immunized," she said. "And until we can get a higher percentage of immunity among the population, there is still going to continue to be that risk of the virus being transmitted from person to person — especially for those who have no immunity."

One way or another, she continued, "we will reach some type of immunity, or what they call herd immunity, and it will either be through people becoming infected or more people being immunized, or probably a combination of both. We are hoping with the vaccines that will happen much sooner than the natural progression of everyone just having illness."

Vaccination update

As of last week, the state of Missouri had received 314,000 vaccine doses, with 66,000 administered. The first doses were given to health care workers, followed by vaccinations for long-term care residents and staff administered by Walgreens and CVS Health.

Mercy Hospital Joplin announced its 1,000th immunization shot early Thursday morning, calling it a "moment of celebration" for staff.

"That helps us realize that we are starting to achieve our goal with getting our staff better protected," Stokes said.

More than 1,000 employees have also received their COVID-19 vaccinations at Freeman Health System. President and CEO Paula Baker received her first of two doses to the upper left arm on Thursday, joking afterward that she hadn't even felt the needle go in. She said there were enough shots available for any Freeman employee to get one if they chose to.

At both hospitals, officials said vaccinations were strictly voluntary.

Mercy officials said Thursday that allergic or other reactions to the COVID-19 vaccinations have been "very, very minimal." Stokes said a few people reported fevers and fatigue, though a vast majority suffered only from sore arms.

Baker echoed that assessment, saying there hadn't been any negative reactions so far to any of the shots among Freeman employees.

"To have these vaccines available to Freeman employees makes me very, very happy," she said.

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