Yale New Haven Health System Update: Covid-19 Vaccinations Rolling Smoothly; Outreach to People of Color; Dispelling Myths

“With almost 4,000 people across the US dying. It’s time for everyone to get vaccinated.”

Dr. Tom Balcezak

Balcezak said the health system was doing outreach with the goal of trying to answer questions and dispel myths.

“The only side effect from the vaccine that most of us are experiencing now is immunity to the virus, which I think all of us can agree is the most wonderful side effect there could be,” Balcezak said, adding that among Yale New Haven Health System staff, the vaccine was not mandatory.

UK and other Variants

Balcezak said viruses constantly mutate and evolve.

“They are trying to give themselves a competitive advantage, which is what allows them to take root, take hold and spread.”

He said the UK mutation, the B117 variant, confers a benefit of spread, though it does not change its mortality or how much it impacts the body once it takes hold. Still he said that variant was of grave concern.

He said less was known about the South African and Brazilian variants.

“The faster we can get our population vaccinated, and the spread of this (virus) stopped, the faster we can stop any of the strains, or any new strains from taking hold within our population,” he said.

We're anticipating that most of the 75+ age group in Connecticut will have received the vaccine by mid-February.

Next, vaccine distribution will open up to the 65+ age group, which we anticipate will happen around that time. pic.twitter.com/OQDw0fouyO
— Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont) February 4, 2021

Asked about the timing of rolling back restrictions, Balcezak said it was all about the positivity rate.

“As we see cases go down, and as we see fewer cases in the hospital, the positivity rate of tests goes down – that will be our trigger,” he said. “Whether there is a different mutation in the community or not, it’s all about how much transmission we see and whether that transmission begins to abate.”

Balcezak said a good piece of news was that there was virtually no flu this year, which he attributed to mask wearing and physical distancing.

Asked about people “jumping the queue” for Covid-19 vaccinations, Balcezak said there were patients who don’t live or work in Connecticut but were patients of the Yale New Haven Health System. He said some of them tried to register for a vaccination, but were not eligible for vaccinations in Connecticut.

He said there will be tough decisions about prioritizing who gets vaccine priority, and the Health System was being very careful about following the State rules and not allow people to jump the line.

That said, Balcezak added, “We’re also not going to police each and every one of the individuals signing up, and we’re going to have a hard time when we get to essential workers, and about how we’re going to assess whether someone who works in a grocery store or an essential manufacturing plant. I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to do that, but we’ll need to figure it out between now and the end of February when it’s expected we’ll be opening up those categories.”