Los Angeles County COVID-19 Vaccination Update December 22, 2020 COVID-19, Emergency Use Authorization, Federal Drug Administration, Health care workers, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Moderna, Pandemic, Pfizer, Vaccination 2854 As you probably know, the first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Los Angeles County last week. These doses, totaling nearly 83,000, are currently being administered to health care workers with the highest risk of exposure at more than 80 acute care hospitals across our communities. We anticipate receiving additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine later this week that will be used to continue vaccinating frontline healthcare workers at acute care hospitals. While this is a remarkable achievement and marks the beginning of the end of the pandemic, we have a long road ahead and must all continue to wear face covering, physically distance, and avoid getting together with people we don’t live with. Los Angeles County will receive additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week – 48,750 in total. These doses will also be used to vaccinate additional health care workers at acute care hospitals. The county will also begin receiving doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, which was recently granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Federal Drug Administration. An EUA allows the government to facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. An EUA was also issued for the Pfizer vaccine. These Moderna vaccine doses will mark the beginning of our vaccination effort of residents and staff at Skilled Nursing Facilities, which have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. This vaccine will also be used to vaccinate frontline EMT’s and paramedics working for EMS and Fire Departments across the county. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were studied extensively in trial and have been found to be approximately 95% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection. No significant safety concerns were identified with either vaccine in the trials, which included more than 70,000 people. Many recipients of both vaccines experienced mild to moderate symptoms for a day or two following vaccination, including soreness at the site of vaccination, muscle ache, headache, fever, and chills. Symptoms were more common following the second dose of the vaccine, and also among younger persons. Several important unanswered questions related to the two vaccines are currently being studied. One important question is how long protection lasts following vaccination. A second question is whether the vaccines prevent asymptomatic infection and transmission of the virus. Scientists are continuing to study the vaccine and hope to be able to answer these questions in the months ahead. Public Health is committed to giving you clear and accurate information about the vaccine and will continue providing updates in the weeks and months ahead. As you probably know, the first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Los Angeles County last week. These doses, totaling nearly 83,000, are currently being administered to health care workers with the highest risk of exposure at more than 80 acute care hospitals across our communities. We anticipate receiving additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine later this week that will be used to continue vaccinating frontline healthcare workers at acute care hospitals. While this is a remarkable achievement and marks the beginning of the end of the pandemic, we have a long road ahead and must all continue to wear face covering, physically distance, and avoid getting together with people we don’t live with. Los Angeles County will receive additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week – 48,750 in total. These doses will also be used to vaccinate additional health care workers at acute care hospitals. The county will also begin receiving doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, which was recently granted an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the Federal Drug Administration. An EUA allows the government to facilitate the availability and use of medical countermeasures, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic. An EUA was also issued for the Pfizer vaccine. These Moderna vaccine doses will mark the beginning of our vaccination effort of residents and staff at Skilled Nursing Facilities, which have been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. This vaccine will also be used to vaccinate frontline EMT’s and paramedics working for EMS and Fire Departments across the county. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were studied extensively in trial and have been found to be approximately 95% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection. No significant safety concerns were identified with either vaccine in the trials, which included more than 70,000 people. Many recipients of both vaccines experienced mild to moderate symptoms for a day or two following vaccination, including soreness at the site of vaccination, muscle ache, headache, fever, and chills. Symptoms were more common following the second dose of the vaccine, and also among younger persons. Several important unanswered questions related to the two vaccines are currently being studied. One important question is how long protection lasts following vaccination. A second question is whether the vaccines prevent asymptomatic infection and transmission of the virus. Scientists are continuing to study the vaccine and hope to be able to answer these questions in the months ahead. Public Health is committed to giving you clear and accurate information about the vaccine and will continue providing updates in the weeks and months ahead. Misinformation and Scams As what happens in other crises, unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation circulating surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines. Here are some of the most popular myths about the COVID-19 vaccine. Myth 1: The vaccine was developed too fast – I don’t think they know enough about it. The Facts: These vaccines could be made fast and still be safe for three simple reasons. There was a lot of research done on the kind of virus that causes COVID-19 before this virus showed up. So scientists had a big head start about the kind of vaccine that would work best to fight this virus. A lot of government money was spent to get many companies to work on this vaccine and to put all of their scientists to work on it around the clock. That helped speed everything up. While every step that has to be followed to make a new vaccine and be sure it is safe was followed, some of the steps were done at the same time instead of one after another. It is like cooking several parts of a meal at once instead of cooking one course at a time. You get done sooner but it’s just as good. In fact, the two vaccines that have been approved to protect against COVID-19 were studied on more than 70,000 volunteers, including adults of all ages and different racial and ethnic groups, and were found to work very well and be equally safe for all. Myth 2: Only 1% of people who get COVID-19 die of it. Won’t the vaccine kill more people than that? The Facts: COVID-19 is a lethal disease. Seasonal flu can be very dangerous but it kills about one person in every thousand infected, while COVID-19 kills one out of a hundred people who are infected. No one has died from the two approved vaccines. Myth 3: The vaccines can make you sick with COVID 19 The Facts: The current vaccines don’t include the virus in any form – no live virus, no weakened virus, no dead virus. You just cannot get the disease from the vaccine. Some other vaccines use the virus they are fighting in some form to charge up an immune response. The current COVID-19 vaccines do not work that way so there is no way that they could give you COVID-19. It is possible to catch the disease in the first few days after your vaccination before the vaccine has a chance to work, but that would not mean you got sick from the vaccine. For most people, the vaccine needs 7 days before it starts to work. And both these vaccines require a second dose before a person is fully protected from getting sick from the virus. It is easy to be confused about this, because you might feel some side effects for a while after getting the vaccine. In fact, about half of the volunteers who tested these vaccines experienced some side effects: most of these effects were mild and did not require any treatment or change in daily activity and lasted for 1-2 days. What they were feeling was not COVID-19, however, not even a mild case of COVID-19. They were feeling the symptoms of an immune response, which means that the vaccine was at work developing antibodies to protect them from COVID-19. Having the best and most accurate information is critical. You can learn more about misinformation and myths by visiting our website. Sadly, scammers are also trying to find ways to cheat people out of their money. During the coronavirus pandemic, scammers are using robocalls, social media posts, and emails to take advantage of fear, anxiety, and confusion about COVID-19. They sell things that don’t work, charge money for things that are free, and steal personal information. In one local COVID vaccine scam, a man reported that he was offered vaccines for his entire family at $49 per person. Luckily, the man’s credit card company declined the payment. As a reminder, vaccines can only be given by licensed medical providers and cannot be purchased at this point in time. There are a number of red flags that something may be a scam, including: Someone offering to move you into an earlier group to get the vaccine for a fee. Someone trying to sell you a place on a COVID vaccine waiting list. There is no “vaccine waiting list”. Someone on the street, online, on social media, or knocking on your door trying to sell you a shot of vaccine. You get calls, texts, or emails about the vaccine with the caller asking for your personal or financial information. It can be your Social Security, bank account or credit card number. NEVER share these numbers or other personal information with an unknown caller or in a text or email. Fake vaccines or “miracle cures” using vitamins or other dietary supplements. Scammers promote these even though they have not been proven to work. The FDA has issued warning letters to many companies for selling products that claim to prevent, treat, or cure COVID-19. If anyone that isn’t well known in your community (like a doctor, a health care clinic, a pharmacy, a County health program) offers you a vaccine – think twice and check with your doctor. If you are unsure whether or not something is true or a scam, go to publichealth.lacounty.gov for more information.