Mostly Cloudy, 51° F
Powell Valley Healthcare and Cody Regional Health began distributing the first 975 doses of COVID-19 vaccine last week. In line with the state’s distribution plan, healthcare personnel were the …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
The Powell Tribune has expanded its online content. To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, or purchase a subscription.
If you are a current print subscriber, you can set up a free web account by clicking here.
If you already have a web account, but need to reset it, you can do so by clicking here.
If you would like to purchase a subscription click here.
Please log in to continue |
|
Powell Valley Healthcare and Cody Regional Health began distributing the first 975 doses of COVID-19 vaccine last week. In line with the state’s distribution plan, healthcare personnel were the first to receive shots.
Among the recipients on Friday was June Minchow, director of emergency and critical care services at PVHC.
“It feels like we’re moving forward, whereas for the last 10 months we’ve been scrambling to keep up,” Minchow said.
Minchow said the side effects she experienced were minor and normal. She had some soreness in her arm and some light fatigue the following day, and she said this is what the vaccine is supposed to do.
“You want a healthy response, because that shows you’re building up immunities,” Minchow said.
The vaccines currently available require a second shot after 21 days, and Minchow said the side effects can be more pronounced with the second round, which shows the immune system is responding normally to the vaccine.
She said there are people who have concerns about the vaccine because it was developed and distributed so quickly, but she said the literature she’s read shows the vaccine is safe.
On Monday, Park County Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin shared a study on the safety and efficacy of Pfizer, Inc.’s newly released vaccine, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The research, he said, found that a fever was uncommon after the first dose, while more common after the second (between 11-16% of recipients). Roughly 0.2% of recipients developed a high fever, he said, with any fever and chills generally tapering off quickly after one or two days.
“Muscle pain, chills, joint pain did happen after the first shot (around 10%) and doubled in frequency after the second shot,” Billin said.
Fatigue was more common, he added, being reported by more than half of recipients.
In the rollout of Pfizer’s vaccine across the country, there have also been a handful of reports of severe allergic reactions; as of Saturday morning, the CDC said there had been six such reactions among more than 272,000 shots administered, according to reporting by The Associated Press.
Health officer Billin, who is also a PVHC emergency room doctor, was among those who received the first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine on Friday; he said his only symptom was pain at the injection site — and it went away within 24 hours.
Billin also noted research suggesting it’s probably best to avoid taking Tylenol or Ibuprofen at the time of vaccination to maximize the immune response.
“There are at least four studies that suggest that for other vaccinations, the immune response is maximized when you get good sleep just before vaccination and in the days after vaccination,” he added. “This may have implications for the timing of the vaccination.”
The Pfizer vaccines that Cody Regional Health and other Wyoming hospitals received last week must be kept at extremely cold temperatures: between minus 76 and minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit. That has limited its distribution only to those hospitals with equipment that can maintain those temperatures.
Moderna, Inc. has produced a different vaccine — which received emergency approval from the FDA last week — that doesn’t require extremely cold storage. As such, its distribution will go to many more providers than the Pfizer vaccine, which will increase the number of people who can be vaccinated.
Minchow notes Johnson & Johnson is also developing a vaccine that requires only one shot. By June, the vaccine will likely be available to just about anyone who wants it. This, health officials have said, will allow businesses to open, people to come to work, schools to provide instruction normally, and people to interact freely.
“It’s exciting,” Minchow said.
The first phase of the state’s vaccine distribution plan includes long-term care residents, but Park County is only administering the limited doses to healthcare personnel. The hospital is working with Walgreens to begin administering doses to long-term care residents next month.
As of Monday, there were 138 active COVID-19 infections in Park County — the lowest total in a couple of months, according to state data. As of Sunday, there were eight patients hospitalized with the disease in the county: five at Cody Regional Health and three at PVHC.
(CJ Baker contributed reporting.)
