(upbeat music) (distance chattering) - [Announcer] The has announced the creation of a new information operations technical training school. - [Narrator] The first man suffering simply (murmurs) to outbreak offer forms while far out innovate any potential adversary. - [Announcer] Air force facing military training has an updated curriculum with a new focus on readiness and lethality. - [Narrator] The first command the Air Force Starts Here. - [Jennifer] Hello everyone. And welcome to the Air Force Starts Here podcast. I'm your host for this professional development podcast. Jennifer Gonzalez from the AETC public affairs team. In this episode, we're discussing the topic that's on everyone's mind right now and that's the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. As you know the Federal Drug Administration, authorized two COVID 19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna for emergency use authorization. To answer all of the questions our airmen have, Major General Dr. John DeGoes, Commander of the 59th Medical Wing at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland took to Facebook for a live virtual town hall. Joining him on the panel include, Chief Master Sergeant Mark Schoellkopf, 59th Medical Wing Command Chief, Colonel Dr. Heather Yun, Deputy Commander Medical Services at Brooke Army Medical Center, Lieutenant Colonel Kevin White, 59th Medical Wing COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinator and staff Sergeant Amanda Wimberley, 802nd military working dog handler. The event was hosted by 59th Medical Wing Public Affairs, Officer Kylie Kinzel, take a listen. - [Interviewer] Which vaccine will be US Air Force be distributing, Moderna or Pfizer? - [Male Interviewee] Yeah, so the Air Force is now distributing both Pfizer and Moderna. In fact, there's a third vaccine that's getting close from Johnson & Johnson, and, you know, there's been news reports that they may be submitting their data on their phase three trial as soon as the early part of February. And so in six or eight weeks we may have actually a third vaccine candidate to use in America and within the department of defense. But right here in San Antonio at both Brooke Army Medical Center and here at Wilford Hall, we're administering the Pfizer BMT product. - [Interviewer] A question that we received in advance. I have a preexisting medical condition. Is there anyone who shouldn't get this vaccine? - [Female Interviewee] I can take that. Yeah, actually the list of contra indications for this vaccine is incredibly short and it's really limited to those who have a severe allergy to this vaccine or to the components of this vaccine. It has a very short ingredient list, probably the most relevant potential allergen in there is one of the fats, that's there polyethylene glycol. So unless, you know, you're allergic to polyethylene glycol you probably don't have a contra indication. - [Interviewer] A question that we received earlier this week. Once I have received both doses of the vaccine do I still need to quarantine? If I believe I have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID 19? - [Female Interviewee] I can take that. Yeah, you know, for now the recommendations really haven't changed with regard to the need to quarantine. If you get exposed to someone or any of the other preventative measures that have been recommended for COVID prevention, like wearing masks and washing hands and social distancing, and all of those things are still recommended. So, you know, those recommendations may not last in perpetuity. They may not last forever, but during the early stages of this vaccine rollout, while the data on, you know, how well does this vaccine prevent asymptomatic transmission, how well does it reduce the risk to the community from a person that's been vaccinated not just the rest of that individual until all of that data is sorted out really because of this severe public health emergency that we're in, everybody's erring on the side of caution and saying, we're not changing those recommendations for the vaccinated just yet. - [Interviewer] A question from Facebook how long do we expect the vaccine to be effective for? Is it measured in weeks, months, or years? - [Male Interviewee] The short answer to that is we don't know. We are it's a two dose sick for the Pfizer vaccine which is the vaccine that we have. It's a two dose series. Once you have that, it's possible that there may be a booster dose. There may be an annual dose. It may be like a flu shot. We don't know. So that's part of those of you who choose to get vaccinated is that you are gonna help collect that data. So we have all the research that was generated in order to get the emergency use authorization to get the vaccination here. Now, all of us who will get the vaccine depending upon whether you get sick, whether you don't get sick, are all the things that we're talking about. We will get even more information to be able to give you more specific answer. - [Interviewee] These vaccines have been approved at a rapid pace. Why would anyone receive it when we do not know the long-term effect - [Female Interviewee] I can take that too. Wow, and that's such a multi-part question, but I love the honesty of this question because I think this is a headspace that a lot of us have been in at some point, right? This has been such a roller coaster of a year and COVID was brand new. And then back in March, you know, they were telling us they were gonna have this vaccine ready in six months and all of this and, you know, full disclosure. I was kinda like, I'll believe it when I see it, okay. But you're gonna have to show me the data for me to feel comfortable with this. And I have an advantage because I have a couple of decades worth of experience, you know, analyzing and interpreting clinical data. So when the data came along and the FDA really was incredibly transparent, I mean they made all of their proceedings open to the public. The data is all there to see for those that, you know, can interpret and understand these things. And then the efficacy of this vaccine just kinda blew everybody's expectations out of the water. It really has proven to be phenomenally more effective than a lot of other vaccines on the market. And when we look at the rigor with which these studies were conducted they're actually all the same rigor that you would get with any other vaccine clinical trial. People ask a lot about, you know, wasn't it rushed. But I think one thing that a lot of people don't understand is exactly how much background data there was going into this. So we've had a couple of dress rehearsals in the last two decades with other Corona viruses with pandemic potential. You may remember SARS or MERS corona virus. You know, these were other corona viruses that are very transmissible. That fortunately sort of were aborted before they became big global public health events. But because of the pandemic potential of those Corona viruses, there was a lot of work done to develop vaccines at the time and to understand the genetics of infection and simultaneous work being done on mRNA vaccines. So really by the beginning of 2021, we were in a great scientific position with a foundation to be able to build on pretty rapidly to get this across the finish line. So long-winded answer, but a lot to unpack in that question. - [Interviewer] A question from Facebook as well, should someone who was pregnant or wishes to become pregnant take this vaccine? - [Female Interviewee] So pregnancy it was known to be a risk category for severe COVID disease. And so pregnant people should be offered the COVID vaccine along with others that have co-morbidities that would increase the risk for COVID. It's important to point out that most of the, actually most clinical trials for everything exclude pregnant women. And so we don't have a lot of pregnancy specific data yet but there's not any biological reason that these vaccines shouldn't work in pregnant people or should pose any kind of particular risk. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has weighed in on it for everybody else's purposes and said that they believe that pregnant women should be offered the vaccine as well as lactating women. If you're breastfeeding, the vaccine should be available to you when it's your turn in your own risk category. And as far as those planning to become pregnant, we know that there's misinformation out there in the, you know, in the world of the internet about fertility problems. Really this is misinformation. It's a rumor, there's really no biological basis for this to be a problem. And there have already been numerous people that, you know, got one of these vaccines and then went on to become pregnant. - [Male Interviewee] Talk to your doctor. But the foremost experts, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommend that vaccine COVID-19 vaccines shouldn't be withheld from pregnant patients or those who are breastfeeding. Talk to your doctor. But the foremost experts, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommend that COVID-19 vaccines shouldn't be withheld from the pregnant patients or those who are breastfeeding. - [Interviewer] If my spouse gets the vaccine and feels some of the COVID symptoms from it, can it be passed to me since I not currently allowed to be vaccinated? - [Female Interviewee] So no, the COVID vaccine doesn't have any live virus in it. There's nothing transmissible about a COVID vaccine that those symptoms that you feel you, you know, usually the first day after the vaccine and more commonly with the second dose, you'll have possibly a sore arm. You might have fatigue or a low grade fever, chills, a headache. These are pretty common symptoms. And they're really symptoms of your immune system responding to that challenge that the vaccine is presenting to it. So that's not a concern for any kind of transmissibility. You know, if there's other symptoms that go along with it, people have gotten COVID because there's so much COVID around. People have gotten COVID right around the same time that they've gotten their vaccine. And so if you have a fever the day after your vaccine and then it lasts for three more days and your sense of smell goes away and you have a cough that's not from the vaccine that's COVID and you need to go and get tested. But the usual kinds of vaccines symptoms that we feel have immune stimulation that doesn't present any risks to anyone else. - [Interviewer] Is there any timeline in which an individual needs to wait from if they were if they had COVID or if they've gotten their flu shot there's many questions coming through on it. Should I wait until after this? So is there any timelines on that? - [Female Interviewee] Yeah, I can take that. So, you know, as Dr. White mentioned earlier, there's some, you know, theoretical possibility that maybe you're immune to COVID ish for 90 days or so after you get infected. So it's resource limited setting, you know, somebody else might be able to get online ahead of you but really the only time you need to wait after you've gotten COVID is until you're better from COVID. So don't come while you're still on isolation from COVID to get your shot, finish out your isolation period, and then you can be vaccinated. With regard to other immunizations, the way that this was studied was really with a minimum of 14 days before or after other immunizations. Would it still work if you got a flu shot right afterwards? Probably, and there's no recommendation to restart anything or do anything different but the recommendation is to space things out by at least 14 days before or after. - [Interviewer] Can we talk a little bit about why there is a need for two doses and a lot of talk is the second dose is a little bit harder on the body. So why is that? - [Female Interviewee] Sure, we can talk about that. So both the Pfizer and the Moderna products involve two doses. A lot of vaccines actually involve an initial vaccine series. And many of us don't think about it this way because when we were getting all of our series for things we were little babies and we don't really remember getting all of those tetanus shots at the beginning thank goodness. But many times when our immune systems have never seen something before, it takes a couple of different experiences with that antigen or with that stimulus in order to get the immune system to really wake up and recognize it. And it really just depends on what is the vaccine and what is the disease that we're talking about. But one analogy that occurred to me as I was thinking about this the other day, growing up in Alabama, you know, there was kind of like a place in line you didn't wanna be. If you were hiking at camp, you didn't wanna be number three in line. It was okay to be number one because you just wake the snake up if you stepped on it. If you were number two, you'd tick it off. But number three was the one that was gonna get bit by that snake. And in this case really your immune system is that snake asleep on a trail and not suspecting Corona virus and that those first and second doses get woken up and then, you know, really ready and looking for that next attack by the real thing. So, and that's really why people get a little bit more symptoms after the second dose too, is because the first time you are exposed to this, your body's just kinda figuring out what to do with it. But the second dose comes along and that's a sign. Your body's prepared. If you get soreness and a little bit of fever and all those things, it's a good sign. - [Interviewer] Do you have any information on the effectiveness of the vaccine against new strands of COVID-19 being talked about? - [Female Interviewee] Yeah, so I can take that. So the question asker is referring to these concerning reports of new strains emerging in different places. There are a couple of new strains in particular that seem like they have increased risk for transmission and how well the vaccine will work against those. So it's still very early. Again, there's not a lot of data, but one of the great fundamental things about both of these vaccines that we have available is that they target that main attachment protein that Corona virus has to use to get into a cell. So any mutation that is significant that affects spike protein in a virus is going to actually make it harder for it to attach to cells. So there's a fair bit of just being fortunate in the way that these vaccines were designed so that they're pretty broadly applicable against preventing infection. And it, there it's very early data but the data that we have so far it looks reassuring and it'll just take time really to sort out in real life in the wild. What happens with this. I would point out, you know, how do these things happen? How do new strains emerge? It's because of many, many, many, many many millions of transmission events. So this is what natural selection looks like in a viral population. And this is why we have new strains emerged is because of uncontrolled viral spread. So the faster we can get everybody immune to COVID, the less we'll have to worry about emergence of new strains. - [Interviewer] We've been in this pandemic for over 10 months now and I haven't caught COVID yet. So why should I be vaccinated? - [Male Interviewee] I think one of the reasons I would hope that we would all consider taking the safe and effective vaccine is that I like to take my mask off. And I'd like to see my 80 year old mom and feel comfortable that I can go back to high a regular life again that I don't have to do physical distancing which makes socialization a little bit harder. And so I think we all want to be over with the pandemic and to have our lives back. And I think one of the fastest ways to do that is for us all to get immunity. - [Female Interviewee] Yeah, really, you know, it's a true statement that really none of us are safe until we're all safe. And as I think about the scale, you know, this week is kind of a milestone because we're at roughly the same number of COVID cases in the United States as we are doses of vaccine now given in the world. And in the United States, we've had, you know, probably by the end of the month, we'll exceed 400,000 deaths. We're at about 380,000 deaths from that number of COVID cases. And the number of deaths from the vaccine is zero. And this is not even accounting for the whole scale of human suffering, besides death that's caused by COVID all these long holler cases with people with symptoms for month or need for hospitalization, need for lung transplant. You know, having to suffer alone without family visitation, isolation, impoverishment, just being uncomfortable, having to go into quarantine, you name it, all of those things versus the same number of vaccines given with really, you know, some sore arms and people that were tired for a day or so. So, you know, really the scale of the problem is just so staggering that, you know, if you haven't got COVID yet, that's great. I haven't either, as far as I know but it's a little bit of a Russian roulette. Every time you step out the door of, you know, when is my number gonna come up and how lucky do I feel? Because I might be lucky, I might get asymptomatic COVID never know it, not give it to anyone, no harm, no foul. Or really bad things could happen that I don't wanna be responsible for. I have to suffer with myself. - [Jennifer] The vaccine will be offered on a voluntary basis. Priority populations are highly encouraged to receive the vaccine. Be sure to follow your unit for information on distribution specific to your area. For more information on the COVID 19 vaccine, you can visit aetc.af.mil. Thank you for this subscribed, stream or download. And as a reminder, you can follow Air Education and Training Command and the AETC command team on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. From our entire AETC Public Affairs Team, I'm Jennifer Gonzalez and talk to you next time on the Air Force Starts Here.