First hospital staff workers in Stanislaus County given COVID vaccinations
Denis Garrison, a supervising surgical nurse at Oak Valley Hospital, was among the first health care workers Friday in Stanislaus County to be immunized with the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines.
“To keep myself safe, to keep my family safe, and hopefully help keep it (COVID-19) from spreading anymore in the community,” said Garrison, as he was rolling up his scrubs sleeve for the shot.
Memorial Medical Center in Modesto and Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock also began immunizing their staff on Friday.
The unique aspect of Garrison’s vaccination is that Oak Valley is the county’s smallest hospital, illustrating COVID’s reach and the impact it’s had on the Oakdale facility and its workers.
It’s licensed for 35 inpatients beds and five intensive care unit beds, with the surge capacity to add 16 beds and five additional ICU beds during the pandemic.
Joann Saporito, vice president of nursing, said hospital administrators began planning to immunize their staff as soon as they heard the vaccines were coming. The past week has been hectic preparing for their arrival.
She said the administration reached out to its 600 employees to see who was interested. The hospital has about 440 health care workers who have direct patient care responsibilities, including caring for known or suspected COVID-19 patients.
On Friday, Oak Valley received 200 doses of the vaccine from the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency and scheduled vaccinations for 25 of its highest risk employees the same day.
Saporito said they are expecting additional COVID-19 vaccines and she’s optimistic there will be enough to immunize all of their health care workers.
Garrison was the first in line and was immunized by Regina Singh, his co-worker in the surgery department.
Singh deferred her vaccination because she is on call in the next few days and didn’t want to chance feeling unwell after receipt of the vaccine.
“Everyone who is not on call can get theirs and when that’s all done, I can get mine, ” said Singh.
Garrison had a few concerns about the vaccine’s side effects, especially possible long-term effects, since it has only been studied for a few months. However, he and Singh said taking the vaccine is a simple matter of the benefits outweighing the risks.
Everyone who gets a vaccination is given an information sheet listing possible side effects and benefits of the vaccine, provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also receive a COVID-19 vaccine card, similar to those given to infants and children.
“It felt like any vaccine,” said Garrison, after receiving the shot, “And I didn’t even cry.”
Immunizations at large local hospitals
Darren Sonnenberg, a registered nurse working in the ICU at Memorial Medical Center, was that hospital’s first vaccinated staff member Friday morning.
Sonnenberg has direct responsibilities caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
He said, “I wanted to get the vaccine for a couple of reasons, one personal and one professional. Personally, I’m trying to keep myself healthy for my family and professionally, I need to stay healthy so I can stay an active member of our team.”
He added, “I want to be part of turning the table.”
The ICU at Memorial has 32 to 35 beds, about the same number as the whole hospital at Oak Valley, and its ICU has been heavily impacted with COVID-19 patients.
“It was more excitement than anything,” said Sonnenberg about getting his shot Friday. “I barely felt the injection and I’m eager to get the second dose.”
He said he did not have any reservations about getting the vaccine, and he was happy that his ICU manager, Kelly Dhesi, was the person administering it.
Krista Deans, spokesperson for Modesto’s Doctors Medical Center and Turlock’s Emanuel Medical Center, wrote in an email, “We have received the vaccine at both DMC and Emanuel. We began vaccinating eligible members of our staff at Emanuel today (Friday) in accordance with FDA, CDC, state and local guidelines. We will begin vaccinating our staff at DMC on Monday.”
Health care workers are first
Garrison and Sonnenberg are two of the thousands of front-line health care workers nationwide who began receiving the Pfizer vaccine within one week of its emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
First in line are health care workers in acute care hospitals working in high-risk settings, including ICUs, emergency rooms or other settings directly caring for known or suspected COVID-19 patients, which is consistent with the prioritization set by the CDC and the California Department of Public Health.
The Pfizer vaccine arrived in the Stanislaus County on Thursday morning, after a brief delay due to shipping issues. The 3,900 doses were then promptly allocated to area hospitals, based on their number of health care workers.
The vaccine requires ultra-cold temperatures for storage and handling, and once thawed needs to be used within five days, which poses additional challenges for scheduling staff vaccinations.
“The vaccine is very particular,” Saporito said, “It has to be held at a certain temperature and it’s critical that it’s kept upright and mixed properly and given in a very tight time line.”
Vaccines are not expected to be available to the general public for a few months, but Oak Valley is already looking ahead.
“We are very excited to be able to offer it (the vaccine) to our employees and as soon as we can start rolling it out to the community, that will happen,” said Saporito.
More vaccines to come
More than 5,000 of the 11,000 health care workers in Stanislaus County work in settings with potential exposure to COVID-19, so this first round of vaccines is not enough to meet the need.
But more vaccines could be on the way soon.
On Thursday, Moderna’s application for an emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccine received a favorable review by the FDA’s panel of outside experts, and the agency granted the EUA late Friday evening. With that approval, Moderna plans to ship vaccine in the next few days, which significantly expands availability.
Pfizer also has additional doses planned for shipment next week, though the number being shipped may be less than initially expected, according to a report from NBC News.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines contain messenger RNA, part of the genetic code of the coronavirus, though their formulations are different. Both vaccines demonstrated more than 94% efficacy in large clinical trials, though two doses, at three or four weeks apart, are required for protection against illness with COVID-19.
“Stanislaus County has submitted a second request for vaccines to CDPH, which did include a request for both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. We have not been informed of which vaccine or the number we will be receiving,” said Robert Moser, acting information officer for HSA, in an email.
Public health officials and hospital personnel reminded the community to maintain COVID-19 mitigation efforts, including wearing a mask, social distancing and staying home as much as possible.
“There appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel,” said ICU nurse Sonnenberg, ”We have something about which to be hopeful.”
This story was produced with financial support from The Stanislaus County Office of Education and the Stanislaus Community Foundation, along with the GroundTruth Project’s Report for America initiative. The Modesto Bee maintains full editorial control of this work.
To help fund The Bee’s children’s health and economic development reporters with Report for America, go to bitly.com/ModbeeRFA
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 6:28 PM.
