Health leaders call it a herculean task: rolling out a COVID-19 vaccine and building people’s confidence in it.
In response, Trinity Health of New England is teaming up with Yale New Haven Health and Nuvance Health to help people learn about COVID-19 vaccines.
Medical experts are looking at doing lots of outreach especially to at-risk people and vulnerable groups.
That includes communities of color who have been greatly impacted by the virus.
“There are lots of myths out there about vaccines,” said Dr. Syed Hussain, Trinity Health of New England Chief Clinical Officer.
Hussain said there’s a lot of misinformation especially when it comes to safety.
“We’ve seen how devastating COVID-19 has been in our country. So when you look at the risk-benefit ratio and educate the public the facts speak for themselves,” said Hussain.
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The goal is to break down the vaccine process from how it will be distributed to possible side effects.
On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed reports that two British health care workers suffered an allergic reaction after receiving the Pfizer vaccine.
“It is likely an unusual and rare effect. But clearly everyone now is aware of that and will be looking at that,” said Fauci.
Authorities said both of the British workers had a past history of allergic reactions.
During trials common side effects of the vaccines were mild to moderate symptoms that lasted a day or two, such as fatigue, body ache and a fever.
While we are still learning more about the COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Kagya Amoako from the University of New Haven says mild reactions are normal to shots in general.
“It’s important that if you go in before you have the vaccine you have a discussion with your physician to make sure they know very well about your reaction to prior vaccines,” said Amoako.
Another thing the hospitals want to let people know about is what’s being called the “Twindemic,” with a spike of Covid cases in the midst of flu season.
That’s why they’re pushing people to get their flu shut and know the difference in symptoms between the two diseases.
