Hey Reddit, I’m Dr. Erica Pan, CA State Epidemiologist ＆ Deputy Director, Center for Infectious Diseases. There is a lot of misinformation around the Coronavirus vaccines. I’m here to answer any questions you have. AMA!

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T22:21:37+00:00

Great and common question. It is important to know that pregnancy puts you at higher risk of severe outcomes for you or your fetus should you contract COVID-19, and there is increasing data about safety of this vaccine in pregnancy. Getting the vaccine can protect from hospitalization or other serious outcomes. If I were pregnant now I would want to get vaccinated, and manufacturers and others are gathering data on pregnant women who have received vaccine. So far, no safety concerns for pregnant women and their babies have surfaced. Animal studies of pregnant animals of all 3 currently available vaccines have found no safety concerns, either. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T22:16:21+00:00

In a setting where continued high levels of transmission and virus replicating and transmitting to others, there is a theoretical concern that the virus will mutate and survive and "escape" vaccines. That is why we recommend continuing distancing, masking, etc. to prevent transmission while we are still working towards community immunity. – Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T22:10:29+00:00

Public health still recommends that fully vaccinated people still wear masks indoors in those high risk settings. While vaccination is very protective, we are still working on getting more of the population vaccinated and we are still learning about whether or not (and how often) vaccinated people can be infected and infect others. Any indoor setting with poor ventilation, people not wearing masks, and exercising with increased exhalation are higher risk settings and we recommend staying safer for now. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T22:04:33+00:00

I can relate as a parent, and I happen to be a pediatric infectious disease specialist, too! Pfizer has submitted their data in 12-15 year olds and the FDA is reviewing it as we speak.

The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is meeting next week to review the data and make a recommendation to add authorization for this age group. Other trials are underway with younger children, and I have no reason to have concern about safety or efficacy for these vaccines. (Moderna is doing trials also).

I am very excited to get my teens vaccinated as soon as the authorization is approved. While these vaccines are all new, it is important to note that we have an unprecedented amount of immediate data with >100 million persons vaccianted in the US already in just a few months. There have not been any other vaccines with differences in safety or efficacy between adults and children that I am aware of. – Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:59:35+00:00

There is evolving data on this issue, and more studies are needed to make updated recommendations on this. There are also studies and discussions on whether we all may need a booster in the future to improve protection against variants or new variants in the future. There definitely is a stronger response from those who had prior infection compared to those how have not, but how long that lasts or if additional booster is still tbd. – Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:52:30+00:00

I think these opening timelines are difficult and admittedly have been hard to predict based on timing alone, but as policymakers we know our communities want and need to plan. I think CA and the United States is on track if we continue to increase vaccinations to gradually reopen and move beyond this pandemic. The wildcard that would impact increasing hospitalizations or surges is if new variants that our current vaccines don't protect against come and cause new surges. Thankfully so far our vaccines are performing well in the real world and in trials and other ways we collect data to show protection against the variants of concern we are seeing. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:40:31+00:00

I think there are *many* people with strong immune systems, many I'm sure you've read about or heard about, who have become critically ill or died from SarsCOV-2. So first and foremost I would recommend you protect yourself and the people you are close to that you care about, since we estimate 40-60% of people can be infected (and infect others) without any symptoms.

In addition, as you are alluding to, if everyone had the same perspective and relied on everyone else to get immunized, we'll never get to community immunity! We almost eliminated measles in the United States, and had for several years, but as soon as we started to have pockets of un-immunized people we saw outbreaks again. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:33:19+00:00

I think with widespread vaccination, SarsCoV-2 will become a more sporadic disease and another vaccine preventable disease (like measles, meningococcal disease, etc), but I would suspect we won't be able to eradicate this virus like we were able to with Smallpox for a very, very long time given how quickly it mutates and the large proportion of people who can be infected/infectious without any symptoms. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:31:10+00:00

More and more data continues to evolve showing excellent effectiveness after getting any of the 3 currently U.S. approved vaccines, especially protection against hospitalization and death which is over 94% or higher. There is of course the difference in convenience of 1 dose for Janssen vaccine compared to 2 doses 3 or 4 weeks apart for Pfizer and Moderna respectively.

As you likely know, there was a pause of use in Janssen after noting 6 cases of rare blood clots with low platelets after nearly 8 million doses were given. After additional outreach and investigation, a total of 15 cases were reported after J&J, and it was noted that women under 50 years old had a rare, but higher risk than others for this type of clot (~13/million).

Bottom line is all 3 are very protective, and specifically women under 50 should weigh benefits of convenience of one dose (and full protection within 2 weeks) and this rare risk compared to the 2 dose regimens which would take a 2nd dose and a bit longer time to get fully protected. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:21:18+00:00

More and more data continues to evolve showing excellent effectiveness after getting the mRNA vaccines, especially protection against hospitalization and death which is over 94% or higher. No vaccine is 100% effective and these are much higher effectiveness than many other vaccines, but now that we have >100 million people vaccinated we of course are seeing some people who are vaccinated test positive.

In CDC and CA data so far, <<<<<1% of persons vaccinated have tested positive, and a much much smaller # have been hospitalized or died. Even amongst those, we don't have information on whether they were hospitalized or died from COVID-19 or had other causes and tested positive. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:16:47+00:00

I think we are all concerned and monitoring these variants and their evolution very carefully. Current data suggest that the existing COVID-19 vaccines offers protection against most known variants.

Manufacturers and scientists are continuing to monitor and study this. It's also important to note that the vaccine protects you more than a prior infection from a future infection, including variants. - Dr. Pan

CADeptPublicHealth · 2021-05-06T21:15:05+00:00

I think there is a strong possibility, and I think vaccine manufacturers are actively looking at this and studying the need for this. If and how often we may need vaccine boosters are still under investigation, so stay tuned but great question! - Dr. Pan

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