The COVID-19 Vaccines: Everything You Need to Know
Original article from The Brink , 2020
With a long-awaited coronavirus vaccine finally shining a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel that has been 2020, The Brink reached out to Boston University COVID-19 experts Davidson Hamer and Judy Platt for answers to so many questions. How soon will vaccines arrive? How prepared is BU to distribute COVID-19 vaccines on campus? How well will the vaccines work? Who will get them first? How long will immunity last? And more.
One thing that’s clear is that the complete rollout of vaccines will take months, probably into the summer. So, at BU and around the country, winter and spring should feel a lot like this fall: wear masks, stay six feet apart, avoid indoor gatherings, safeguard your household bubble, and at BU, keep adhering to the University’s COVID-19 health protocols and rigorous testing schedule. In other words, don’t relax just because a vaccine is coming. In this edited and condensed version of that conversation, here is what Hamer and Platt explain.
Q&A
With Davidson Hamer and Judy Platt
The Brink: First, can you tell us how you’ve been keeping up with the latest information from local and state public health officials?
Hamer: I’m a member of BU’s Medical Advisory Group that has been guiding the University’s COVID-19 response since March. My background is in global health, infectious diseases, and vaccines, and I’m a faculty member at BU School of Public Health, School of Medicine, and the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. Since 2005, I’ve studied vaccines and helped manage the travel medicine clinic at Boston Medical Center. Throughout the pandemic, I’ve provided guidance to the Massachusetts higher education reopening task force, and I chair a group where clinicians and leaders from BU, Harvard University, Tufts University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology share data and insights on campus coronavirus response efforts.
Platt: I’m a family medicine physician and the director of BU’s Student Health Services. I’m the chair of BU’s Medical Advisory Group and I oversee the clinical management and isolation of individuals who test positive for coronavirus. I also help manage BU’s contact tracing efforts. In coordinating BU’s coronavirus response with the larger community, I’ve been in contact with the local and state departments of public health.
It seems like a lot of vaccine news is happening rapidly now. What’s the latest?
Platt: On Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. By the end of the month, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) says it expects the state will receive 180,000 vaccine doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, and 120,000 vaccine doses from Moderna, which is now on the brink of receiving emergency use authorization from the FDA.
Is there a timetable on how quickly people in Massachusetts will get vaccinated?
Platt: According to Massachusetts DPH, they hope to have 80 percent of state residents vaccinated by June 2021. On Monday, Boston University’s teaching hospital, Boston Medical Center (BMC), received its first shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, nearly 2,000 doses in total, and the first doses are expected to be given [to staff there] on Wednesday.
Do you expect the rollout of a vaccine to change how BU’s spring semester looks, as far as health and safety measures are concerned? Or will masks, social distancing, and everything else from the fall remain in place?
Platt: Next semester, people should plan for all the same health and safety protocols that we’ve had this fall semester. Masking, physical distancing, regular surveillance testing. The state says that the third phase of vaccinations for otherwise healthy people who don’t meet the criteria of the first or second vaccination phases will most likely be eligible to get vaccinated as early as April. The timing of when we receive those vaccines is a really important piece, because a lot of our students will leave campus in May. We hope we can vaccinate everyone before they leave campus, which would be within the national overall goal of having the country fully vaccinated by June or July.
Since BMC received its first batch Monday, when would you expect BU to begin to receive vaccines?
Hamer: I don’t think we’ll receive any vaccines for the BU population until next year [2021]. We’re going to have a gradual rollout. It’s going to be a tough winter. People need to keep their masks on and keep distancing. And it’s going to be even longer, until April or May, until vaccines start reaching the general public outside of the higher-risk groups. By then, the national caseload may be dropping because of seasonality and because the effects of the first and second waves of vaccinations are kicking in. But we won’t see a full vaccine effect until May or June at the earliest. By next summer, transmission may not be zero but hopefully it will be a lot better. Maybe…maybe…maybe we could stop wearing masks, if things went really well, sometime next summer.