Dr. John Vanchiere, Infectious Disease Specialist LSU Health Shreveport
Today the first coronavirus vaccine to apply for emergency approval from the FDA is Pfizer’s effort to fight the pandemic. A 50-percent effectiveness rate was the original benchmark set for vaccines. Infectious disease specialist Dr. John Vanchiere at LSU Health Shreveport is also a principal investigator on the Pfizer Vaccine trial, and he said Pfizer’s effectiveness rate of 95-percent is remarkable.
“This is very good news, that means this vaccine is more than twice effective as the regular flu vaccine is, that’s really good,” said Vanchiere.
The proposed protocol for vaccine distribution is healthcare workers that treat COVID patients, then older adults that live in congregant setting such as nursing homes. Vanchiere says in Louisiana 40-percent of COVID deaths were in nursing homes.
“In individuals over age 65, older adults, the vaccine is 94-percent effective and almost as important is that older adults have fewer side effects,” said Vanchiere.
Vanchiere said 44,000 participated in the Pfizer clinical trial worldwide, including 231 people from the Shreveport-Bossier area. He says side effects from the injection means your body is responding to the vaccine building an immune response.
“Headache, fatigue, low-grade fever, lasts a day a half, that’s to be expected,” said Vanchiere.
Long term effects of the vaccine remain to be seen, Vanchiere says we only have safety data on 30,000 who received the vaccine and two months after the second injection.
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