San Jose State students differ in whether they trust the two coronavirus vaccines, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of both vaccines in December to prevent the COVID-19 disease, but the vaccines are not yet FDA-approved, according to the FDA website.
Psychology junior Alexandra Yu said there was “no question” in accepting her first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 12.
Yu was administered the vaccine through her work at Bay Area Behavioral Connection, a mental health service in San Jose that serves autistic kids.
Nutrition senior Alejandra Rodriguez was also administered the vaccine through her work as a health care worker on Jan. 12, but she declined to take it.
“I don’t feel comfortable getting the vaccine because it has not been around for a long time,” Rodriguez said over the phone. “We truly don’t know the long-term effects it might have in the long run.”
Kinesiology junior Jesse Iloreta said he’ll also refuse the vaccine because he’s lost family members and friends to COVID-19 disease and would prefer to wait until more long-term data regarding the COVID-19 vaccines is discovered.
“I’m a bit apprehensive,” Iloreta said over text. “I’m most concerned about the long term effects [of the vaccine].”
Marcelle Dougan, an SJSU health science assistant professor and a director of the Valley Medical Center Foundation (VMCF), said it’s important for state and city officials, healthcare providers and community leaders to “be transparent about what we know and what we don’t know” about the COVID-19 vaccines.
The VMCF is the official donation collection point for COVID-19 relief in Santa Clara County and has partnered with public institutions including the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, according to the VMCF website.
“People might be wary about taking a vaccine,” Dougan said over Zoom. “We don’t have long term data, but we know from what we’ve seen that the vaccine is 95% effective.”
What we know about the vaccines
In Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, approximately 15,400 individuals 18 years or older received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the FDA Moderna briefing document.
The document stated the vaccine has been shown to prevent COVID-19 in the trials following two doses of an intramuscular injection, given one month apart. While the duration of protection against COVID-19 is unknown, the efficacy is 94%.
The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is also a two-dose intramuscular injection but is administered three-weeks apart for individuals 16 years or older, according to the Pfizer-BioNTech fact sheet available on the FDA website.
The Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trial retrieved data from 43,448 individuals, half of whom received placebos and half received the BNT162b2 vaccine, showing the vaccine was well tolerated and 95% efficient in preventing COVID-19, according to the Pfizer-BioNTech fact sheet.
Dougan said the clinical trials were very well conducted and showed a low risk of side effects in the vaccines.
Yu said she experienced the common side effects of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, including chills, fever, headache, muscle pain, fatigue and severe pain at the injection site for three days.
“It didn’t feel like a normal vaccine because the side effects came onto me really really fast . . . but I knew that just meant [the vaccine] was working,” Yu said over the phone.
Other commonly reported symptoms include joint pain, swollen lymph nodes and vomiting, according to the FDA Moderna COVID-19 vaccine webpage.
Yu said she will receive the second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Feb. 11 and according to the FDA Moderna vaccine webpage, more side effects can be expected with the second dose.
The Pfizer vaccine’s most commonly reported side effects were similar: pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain and fever, typically lasting several days, according to the FDA Pfizer vaccine webpage.
The webpage stated that more side effects can also be expected with the second dose of Pfizer vaccine.
What we don’t know about the vaccines
Dougan said the vaccines are not cures.
“We don't know yet whether people can transmit the disease even if they've taken the vaccine, that’s one of the concerns,” she said. “We only have information for the time period.”
While Dougan said she is confident in the effectiveness of vaccines, she added that people must talk with their health care providers about any anxieties or risk factors that might be involved because of any other ongoing health conditions.
“We don't know and because of that, we need to watch this very closely as time goes on so that we can catch adverse effects and things that we may not have seen in the smaller studies,” she said, adding that we may see effects from the vaccine in larger population levels.
Dougan said because there’s uncertainty, people still have to adhere to public health guidelines after getting vaccinated, which includes wearing masks, washing hands, social distancing six-feet apart, outdoor congregating and following county guidelines.
Vaccine distribution
SJSU alumna Jaida Chan, who graduated in Winter 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology, was another health care worker who received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in the beginning stage of California’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan.
“I was kind of nervous to get [the vaccine] just because I didn't know anyone else who had it already,” Chan said over the phone.
Chan received the vaccine from her work, Cordilleras Mental Health Center, which is a residential mental health center for adults in Redwood City, on Jan. 12.
Chan said she only felt pain at the injection site and fatigue for 24 hours after she got the vaccine and is scheduled for her second dose on Feb. 9.
“[I] knew the clinical trials were efficient,” she said. “I felt lucky to receive the first dose of the vaccine so early in the distribution process.”
Phase one of the California’s vaccination plan has three parts, according to the California COVID-19 website.
The California COVID-19 website stated as of Tuesday morning Santa Clara County is still in phase 1A of California’s vaccination plan, in which health care workers and long-term care workers are prioritized for vaccinations.
Dougan said the first phase is crucial because it targets the most at-risk populations of catching and spreading the virus in Santa Clara County.
The website also stated that the county is beginning phase 1B of California’s vaccination plan, where individuals 65 years old and older, at-risk communities at work in education, childcare, emergency services and food and agriculture, are prioritized vaccinations.
Employees in transportation, industrial, commercial, residential and sheltering facilities and services will also be prioritized in vaccinating, according to the same website.
The website stated California is prioritizing vaccines for equitable distribution to those who want it, as the state will have enough supplies to vaccinate its population by summer 2021.
“Currently, we have vaccinated less than 10% of the [Santa Clara County] population,” Dougan said. “The population in Santa Clara County is two million people.”
She said in order for the vaccine to work, Santa Clara County needs to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating a minimum of 70-80% of the county’s population.
“So we have a bit of a way to go,” Dougan said. “We just need adequate capacity to produce the vaccines and then also enough places around [Santa Clara County] that we can expand the distribution of the vaccines.”
Chan said she hopes the people in the future phases of California’s vaccination plan feel more comfortable with the idea of receiving the vaccine.
“A lot of my friends said they would get it today if they could,” she said.
Dougan said she thinks once people understand what’s at stake and what’s known, people can make informed decisions about whether they’ll take the vaccine.
