Should be available to general public by this summer

by Colleen Gundlach

Since the first Covid-19 vaccine was approved in December, people have been eager to sign up to receive their doses. According to The Washington Post, as of Jan. 22 at least 16.2 million people have been vaccinated against Covid. The process that has been rolled out in phases, based on guidelines issued by individual states.

Phase 1a began in Connecticut in mid-December after the release of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was granted emergency use approval by the Food and Drug Administration. In this phase, the vaccine was available only to healthcare personnel who had the potential of being directly exposed to people who had Covid, to residents of long-term care facilities and to first responders. Each healthcare facility was assigned an employer coordinator to take the names of staff members interested in being vaccinated and to confirm that the person was, indeed, a frontline healthcare worker or first responder.

 In the Norfolk area, the Torrington Area Health District (TAHD) is responsible for being the liaison between healthcare employers and the Vaccination Administration Management System (VAMS). When an employee’s name and email address are submitted to TAHD, the information is then forwarded to VAMS. The staff member then quickly receives an email with the link that will lead them to a website where they can make an appointment to be vaccinated.

On Jan. 13, the state moved on to the first portion of phase 1b, which allows people who are age 75 or older to also receive the vaccine. People in this age group have the option of going through TAHD as well, by linking to their website at https://www.tahd.org and clicking on and completing the COVID19 Vaccination Survey. Within 24-48 hours, they will receive an email from VAMS to schedule an appointment. Alternatively, they can go to the state Department of Public Health website at https://dphsubmissions.ct.gov/OnlineVaccine. For those who don’t have internet access or an email address, a phone call to Connecticut’s COVID Vaccine Appointment Assistance Line at 877-918-2224 will allow access to vaccine registration between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The next portion of phase 1b is expected to take effect in early February and will open vaccine eligibility to people between the ages of 65 and 74; to people who have underlying health conditions; to people who live or work in congregate settings such as halfway houses, corrections facilities, mental health facilities; and to people who are essential employees in the areas of education, agriculture, food service, postal services, manufacturing, grocery stores, pharmacies, child care and waste management. 

No date has yet been set for phase 1c, but the state’s website, ct.gov, indicates that the vaccine is expected to be available to the general public sometime this summer, running into the fall months.

There are a few precautions related to taking the vaccine. TAHD cautions that people should not take the vaccination if they have received any vaccine at all in the past 14 days or if they have ever had a severe allergic reaction to something (anaphylaxis), namely, “a reaction for which you were treated with epinephrine or EpiPen, or for which you had to go to the hospital.” People who take the vaccine must be 16 years or older for the Pfizer vaccine and 18 years or older for the Moderna. Regarding pregnancy and the Covid vaccine, CDC guidance says, “Based on current knowledge, experts believe that mRNA vaccines are unlikely to pose a risk to the pregnant person or the fetus because mRNA vaccines are not live vaccines. The mRNA in the vaccine is degraded quickly by normal cellular processes and does not enter the nucleus of the cell. However, the potential risks of mRNA vaccines to the pregnant person and the fetus are unknown because these vaccines have not been studied in pregnant people.”

Both the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines are mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines. According to the CDC, this is “a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases. To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, they teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.”

Typical side effects of the Covid vaccine have been reported as headaches, chills, fever, fatigue and a sore arm at the injection site.