Healthcare workers are in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine, as Alabama plans to give injections as early as next week.
But even among medical workers, some say they won’t take it.
Rebecca Willis, a nursing professor at Jefferson State Community College Ledge in Birmingham, said vaccine companies have not had time to test the long-term effects.
Willis is far from alone. According to the CDC, only 63 percent of healthcare workers are ready to be vaccinated. In Alabama, the numbers may be lower. An initial poll by hospital staff showed that 50 percent of people would be vaccinated at both USA Health in Mobile and East Alabama Medical Center in Opelica.
The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine, and the Moderna vaccine is due for approval later this month. Worldwide tests have shown that both vaccines are safe and have an efficacy rate of about 95 percent.
For some, the unprecedented pace of vaccine development gives them a break. Alabama Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris said the process was expedited due to a global epidemic, but there was no scientific shortcut.
“The reason this process is happening so fast is that these vaccine manufacturers are doing a lot of things in parallel at the same time that they would normally do at once.” Dr. Said Harris.
He plans to get vaccinated, such as Dau. Fauci and also many former presidents of the US.
Katie Colbert does too.
“Someone has to be first,” Colbert said. “I’m the kind of person who can do anything to help. I will always be the first person to reach out for help when needed. ”
Colbert is a nurse based in the Gulf Shores area who travels to nursing homes for short-term work. In the early days of the epidemic, she watched in despair as COVID-19 spread like wildfire among her elderly patients.
“Every day we lose at least one resident every day,” he said of his one-month job in Indiana. On another assignment in Colorado, half of its inhabitants caught the disease. Some could not survive. “It was horrible to watch,” he said.
That’s why Colbert is eager to get the Covid-19 vaccine at his next home in Florida, where he toured on Friday.
But nursing professor Willis said she’s listening to gut feelings about strangers. He wants to see how others do. “I’m a bit more of a critical thinker, and so I always like to look before jumping,” he said of the FDA approval process.
Rebecca Willis is a professor of nursing at Jefferson State Community College
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based on new technology that has been in development for years using mRNA or messenger RNA, to teach the body how to fight covid-19, without injection of live virus, vaccines usually do.
Stephanie Horton, who works in the neo-natal care unit at St Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, said she too was not ready to take anything new.
“I’m looking forward to seeing more focused research on people’s side effects from the vaccine,” he said, adding that it probably won’t take until the end of next year.
She says her hospital has not yet forced her staff to get vaccinated, but it would present a major concern if it is done.
“I really have to go back and think about my 18-year career and find a job I don’t need.”
A.D.P.H. Says he has no knowledge of any plans in hospitals requiring CIV-19 vaccine. Flu shots are mandatory by hospitals.
It is not clear if vaccinators can spread the disease further, but scientists hope it is. To reach the mob’s immunity, experts say the U.S. 70 percent of the population should be unable to spread COVID-19.
“I hope this vaccine comes out and hopefully this will bring us to some‘ new normal ’, so we don’t have to have our guard as much as we did. Matthew Hart, a term care nurse who works at Rehab Select in Albertville.
He said he has lost at least a dozen patients and has seen his wife fall ill.
“There was a time when I really thought I would lose my wife,” he said, adding that he felt helpless when he was taken to the hospital. “One of the worst experiences anyone could have was (not being able to breathe), and his oxygen level was dropping to 80’s.”
Now, months later, Hart’s wife, a wildlife photographer, struggles to complete the haphazard outdoor tracks needed for her work due to the long-term effects of her COVID-19.
Hart is worried that his family may be re-infected, but he hopes a vaccine will eliminate the risk.
It is not known how long the vaccine will last. Researchers now believe that COVID-19 immunity to self-efficacy lasts longer for most people.
U.A.B. And Dr. David Kimberlin, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Children at F. Alabama, is in touch with the CDC group to plan a vaccine rollout.
He hopes more data on vaccine tests will be released to appease health workers who will be on the fence.
“Ultimately, they have seen directly the risks of the disease that prevents vaccines.” “Transparency encourages acceptance, and we’ve just reached the point where we can see the data directly.”
Birmingham-based physical therapist Karen Argle said she has mixed feelings and concerns but believes she will get the vaccine.
“Overall I’m positive about what I’m hearing,” he said.
“I think that what is really being done inside the body can be taught more so that people feel more comfortable about what is being injected into it. Everyone is afraid of strangers, ”he said.
Karen Argal is convinced by the science behind the vaccine
For Hart, Albertville’s nurse, hesitation in health workers is the same for this course.
“But among doctors, you’ll always have those outsiders who disagree with what most of us are seeing.”
“We’re educated on a lot of stuff,” he said. “But there will always be a small percentage of people with illegality.”
