HJBR Sep/Oct 2021

VACCINE HESITANCY Q&A 20 SEP / OCT 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE making similar policy changes, particularly as we look forward to full approval from the FDAof at least the Pfizer vaccine. And, there are three distinct benefits from a hospital’s perspective of making such policy changes. Number one, it protects their staff. It’s a health safety measure for their staff. Hospi- tals, like all employers, have an obligation to ensure that their staff is safe when they go out there and work, and increasing vac- cination rates among staff is an important way of doing that. Number two, it actually serves to increase the available workforce, because every hos- pital in the state will tell you now that they have significant numbers of their staff that are out, either sick with COVID or quaran- tining, and those numbers go down as vac- cination rates go up. The third thing, which is the most impor- tant to me, is it increases the quality and the safety of care that’s being provided. There are vulnerable people in hospitals. There are patients with significant underlying condi- tions, patients who are immunosuppressed, patients for whom the stakes could not be higher. And if I were having the misfortune of requiring care in a hospital right now, or a family member, I would want my care team to be vaccinated, because it would mean the chances of COVID being passed on to me and my family would be less. It would mean the care that I or my family received would be safer. And, that’s ultimately the most important thing. Some of these nurses have expressed to me they’ve already had COVID-19. They’re of childbearing age, and they don’t want to risk the long-term side effects of the vaccine using technology never before used. It’s not the short-term effects that they’re concerned about, it’s the long- term effects on their bodies and their children’s. I think that’s misguided on a couple levels. Number one, obviously, the first vaccine, or the Pfizer andModerna are the first vaccines that employ that messenger RNA technol- ogy. It is not the first medicine or therapeu- tic that implies messenger RNA technology. This technology has been around for at least a decade, and it has been employed in other types of therapeutics. So, it’s incorrect to say it’s the first time that it’s being used. Secondly, there have been absolutely no data to suggest that the vaccines con- fer long-term effects or that they have any impact on fertility, whatsoever. That’s a myth that’s unfortunately become very pervasive myth. It’s unclear how it even got started, but it’s based in absolutely zero facts or evidence. And third, all that said, if somebody still would feel more comfortable receiving the more traditional type of vaccine, the J&J vaccine is a more traditional vaccine plat- form that’s based on the adenovirus, a very common type of vaccine platform that does not employ messenger RNA technology. The evidence doesn’t bear out, but has there been time for that evidence to bear out? Well, there’s been 340million doses of the vaccines administered across the country. And, I can tell you from personal experi- ence, my wife received the Moderna vac- cine while she was in her second trimes- ter, and now we have a beautiful, healthy baby boy. There has been lots of experience at this point and very close monitoring. In fact, the safety apparatus that monitors the side effects that’s in place right now by the CDC or the FDA, is the most robust safety monitoring apparatus that has ever been in place in this country. And so, people should feel comforted that with 340 million doses administered, these are safe vaccines. These myths are really damaging. They’re really pervasive, and when we get down to it, they’re based in absolutely nothing. And yet, they cause harm. What we do know, without any shred of doubt right now, is that when people get infected with COVID, that causes perina- tal problems. COVID infection itself leads to preterm labor, and it leads to maternal com- plications and an increase in maternal mor- tality. We see that in our hospitals. That’s a fact. The people that are considering getting vaccinated but have paused because they’re either pregnant or of childbearing age need to understand that with all the data out there right now, with everything that we can look “The challenge now is hospital staffing, particularly nursing staffing … many nurses that I know personally have taken the opportunity to either pursue nonclinical work, go back to school, take a break or maybe take a traveling gig that pays more.”