Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville received its first shipment of COVID vaccine yesterday, and UVA expects some by noon today, allowing inoculation of about 3,000 workers. From the university’s medical center, Sandy Hausman reports it could take three weeks for all of them to get their first dose.
The first two people scheduled to get the Pfizer vaccine here are African-American doctors who are anxious to demonstrate the safety of innoculation to a community that is skeptical. Others on the frontlines of pandemic treatment will come next according to Dr. Costi Sifri, a professor and director of hospital epidemiology.
“It’s not only going to be doctors and nurses but respiratory therapists and physical therapists, nutritionists, social workers, housekeepers,” he explains.
Side effects from the vaccine are generally mild.
“The most common side effect for this vaccine are going to be a sore arm – not dissimilar to what you would get if you take a flu vaccine," says Sifri. "If you take a look at the clinical trials, side effects are things like fatigue, headache, muscle aches and sometimes some chills.”
Those who get a shot will be asked to wait for 15 minutes to be sure they don’t have a bad reaction. Two patients in the UK suffered serious allergic responses, and UVA recommends people who have severe allergies consult with a specialist before being vaccinated.
Sifri says the medical center has provided special training to pharmacists who will handle concentrated vaccine when it arrives by truck on dry ice.
“They do get special training on how to work with vials that are kept at such a cold temperature – proper gloves for handling and things like that. Once it’s thawed it can be re-constituted and divided up into shots.”
The hospital can vaccinate about a thousand people a week, and Sifri says UVA is anxious to get started.
“We’re pretty humbled by this. We’ve had a lot of challenges in the last 9-10 months, dealing with this pandemic, and it’s significantly impacted all of our employees – based on the work that they do and the ravages of this pandemic, so we’re excited to be able to hopefully turn the page.”
He adds that more than a dozen other sites in Virginia – hospitals equipped to store the vaccine at super low temperatures -- will also be getting supplies this week. As new vaccines are approved, the state health department will send doses to nursing homes and other institutions where residents are at increased risk of contracting COVID.