9 concerns, questions and misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines: A local doctor responds – Detroit Lakes Tribune

COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers have been churning out doses faster than expected, and more and more people are rolling up their sleeves for their shot — a shot in the arm that many also think of as their best shot at a return to normal life after a long year of pandemic-related restrictions.

Patients and health care workers at vaccination stations in the Detroit Lakes area and all across the globe have reported feeling like there’s finally “a light at the end of the tunnel” upon getting inoculated.

“Most people are relieved and happy to get it, that I’ve seen,” said Dr. Richard Vetter, the chief medical officer for Essentia Health’s west region, which includes Detroit Lakes and Fargo. “We’ve got a great team in Detroit Lakes, and the excitement they go to work with every day, and the excitement from patients that rubs off… they’re really enjoying doing that work (of administering the vaccines).”

Yet there’s still a strong percentage of people who are hesitating or refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Vetter said only about 60% of those who are eligible for a dose have actually gotten one at this point — “and we want to get that higher.”

Herd immunity is reached at around 70%, but the higher that percentage gets, the better for everyone, Vetter said: “If we can vaccinate 60% or 65% of the population, that would get us close to that 70% (when combined with the people who haven’t been vaccinated but have been infected with COVID-19). Of course, I still think if we can get to 90-95%, better yet, but that’s a stretch.”

He believes more people will warm up to the idea of inoculation in time, as they hear about others getting their shots and the early fear and misinformation surrounding the vaccines starts to dissipate.

“We all want to get past this and get back to having a more normal lifestyle,” he said.

People’s reservations about the vaccines range from concerns about safety and long-term health impacts to conspiracy theories about microchips and infertility.

Below, Dr. Vetter responds to nine questions, concerns and misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccines, as seen and heard by the Tribune in recent weeks around the Detroit Lakes community and on social media. (Some responses have been edited for length.)

One of the things that maybe isn’t understood is that a lot of the technologies behind the vaccines were already being developed for other purposes before COVID-19 came along. … So all they (the scientists) needed to do was identify the RNA sequence of the virus and, once they knew that, they were able to insert it into the technology that was already there to be able to rapidly develop those vaccines.

Another thing that was instrumental was the government funding early on. That supported manufacturing of the product even before vaccine efficacy was really known. What that allowed them to do was stockpile a bunch of doses … that could have been destroyed had the vaccines not been safe. So the government took on that risk, right away. That saved many, many months of production time.

The government also put out some grants — and Minnesota and North Dakota were two of the states selected — to do some planning on the logistics of distribution, so that started early, as well. That all really shortened up the time.

There were no corners cut. Independent scientists have looked at the vaccines (and)…any concerns were addressed to show the vaccines’ efficacy and safety.

We don’t really know if COVID-19 infection gives you long-term immunity or if having previous infection means you can’t get ill from it again — or spread it to others. We do know that the vaccine does protect, especially against serious infection…which can lead to long-lasting issues (heart, lung and kidney effects, for example). We don’t exactly know the long-term consequences of the COVID infection, so the majority of us (scientists and health care professionals) still feel the vaccine is a much safer route.

I think the concern about safety that was out there early on, in the media and on social media, led people to overemphasize the side effects. For the majority of people, the side effects are relatively minor: fatigue, headache, joint pain, fever… they’re similar to what you see with other vaccines. Evidence suggests the side effects are higher with the second dose, but that varies per individual and the effects are tolerable and last for a day or two at the max. Serious allergic reactions have proven to be exceedingly rare.

We want to protect not just ourselves but also our friends, our family, our neighbors. Until we get enough people vaccinated, there will always be susceptible people in our communities that we want to protect, so we need to continue to do those things (wash hands, wear a mask, social distance) until the incidence in our community is small enough that there’s minimal risk to those who haven’t been able to get vaccinated.

(There’s a) difference between personal health — individual impact to me — versus the public health aspect, which is, “Even though I might do OK as an individual, how do I protect those in the community who are more vulnerable?” So, “Even though I may not get that sick from the infection, what is my duty to my family and friends and others that I come in contact with?” That is what people have to look at in that equation, is both sides.

I think that’s true, we don’t. But we have over 100 million individuals who’ve been safely vaccinated now (127 million doses had been administered in the U.S. as of this March 23 interview; about 45 million people were fully vaccinated, 14% of the population), and we are continuing to monitor safety. If you think about what we know about vaccines and vaccine biology, there’s really no scientific reason to think that the vaccine really will have any long-term side effects.

The majority of people are going to do just fine after they contract the illness, but there is a subset of people who won’t do as well, and we can’t always predict who those people will be… And we don’t know what the long-term health impacts of getting that serious infection will be on those individuals. There’s a lot unknown about the long-term complications. So it’s a very unpredictable infection.

I think that would occur without vaccines, but at what cost? Cost in terms of lives lost, health impacts, impact on families… With the vaccine, we can induce herd immunity in a much faster way and a much safer way than natural immunity. Instead of 2 or 3 years to reach herd immunity naturally, theoretically, we can have that achieved in less than a year, in a much safer way.

This is really that difference between personal health and public health, and personal risk and public risk. We are still putting our neighbors and family and high-risk people at risk when we take that risk on for ourselves. It’s not just about us… It’s really all about public health and mitigating risk.

I’ve heard all of these things from families and patients. But if you look at the vaccine biology, we know that messenger RNA (used in the COVID-19 vaccines) cannot get into the nucleus of the cell, which is where the DNA is (and where it would need to go to affect fertility, too). It stays in the area outside of the nucleus. After the messenger RNA is taken up by the cell, it produces proteins, spike proteins, and your body develops an immune response to those proteins. … Then the messenger RNA quickly degrades.

The microchip tracking … I’ve heard people talk about that … I’m not sure where that’s coming from. We just try to meet people where they’re at, and try to use science to explain the scientific basis behind the vaccines.

One of the very unfortunate things about this pandemic is it’s been very politicized, from the masking to the restrictions to the vaccine, and I think the more we can keep politics out of it and focus on the science, the better.

I would encourage people who have questions to talk to their provider about the vaccine. And hopefully, in time, people will be reassured by seeing others, including so many of those in the health care fields, taking the vaccines themselves.

• Find out who’s eligible today to get vaccinated in Minnesota at the state’s COVID-19 response website.

• Essentia Health is offering vaccines to all those eligible, by calling 833-494-0836 to schedule an appointment, or by scheduling online through the MyChart patient portal (which is newly open to nonpatients, as well).

• Sanford Health is contacting its eligible patients as doses are available; for more information, visit the website or call Sanford at 800-821-5167.

• White Earth Tribal Health has been holding vaccination clinics open to the general public in counties around the reservation, with varying availability and eligibility requirements; learn more on the White Earth Nation Facebook page.

• Thrifty White Pharmacy, veteran’s affairs clinics and public health departments are also offering vaccines in the area. To be connected with a vaccination location near you, visit the state’s Vaccine Connector website and fill out the required information.

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