As a practicing physician at NYU Langone Health, it was my turn today Pfizer vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that COVID-19.
In addition to seeing patients in my office, I perform procedures as a gastroenterologist that could potentially expose me to an aerosol virus.
This was me in the COVID wards last April, stunned by the devastation.
Dr. Jon LaPook
Now I am amazed – and excited – that vaccines were developed in less than a year. I know some people are put off by the term Operation Warp Speed for fear that vaccines will be developed too quickly. But the record time from the publication of the SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence to the start of phase 1 safety studies was achieved thanks to decades of previous research developing so-called “vaccine platforms”.
On December 15, I interviewed the director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Francis Collins, and he gave me an easy-to-understand analogy for these platforms. Imagine there is a factory that makes some kind of widget. “You figure out how to make widgets really well, and then you can change the design a little bit, and you can make another widget, but very quickly, because you already have a conveyor belt there. It’s a bit like we do with these vaccine platforms. “
While vaccines against COVID are being developed in record time, this has not been so much a sudden leap as a gradual decrease in the time it takes us to develop a vaccine.
According to the National Institutes of Health, it took 20 months in 2003 from the selection of a genetic sequence for the then-circulating SARS virus to the first human injection of a vaccine. With H5N1 (bird flu) in 2006, that time was shortened to 11 months. H1N1 (swine flu) lasted 4 months, Zika, 3.25 months. With the Modern vaccine against COVID-19, the SARS-CoV-2 series was posted on January 10, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Moderna began work on January 11, production began on January 14 and Phase 1 study began on March 16, 2020 – only about two months after the viral sequence was announced. What a scientific masterpiece!
Operation Warp Speed began on May 15 and helped speed up testing of vaccine candidates by cutting red tape, but I trust public health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, assured me no corners have been cut. I have the data presented in the public meetings of the FDA Advisory Committee that reviewed emergency use consent requests for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and I agree with the FDA’s decision that, based on current available scientific evidence, the benefits of these vaccines far outweigh the risks. Pfizer’s vaccine was authorized for those aged 16 and over, Moderna’s for those aged 18 and over.
Researchers are looking a bit seriously allergic reactions that have occurred in about 1 in 45,000 people who have received the Pfizer vaccine so far, and they will look out for other unexpected side effects in the future. It is too early to know the exact incidence of these reactions. This morning I contacted Dr. Fauci for insight into the allergic reactions, and he texted me this: “One of my departments here at NIAID is planning a study to investigate all of this – incidence, mechanisms, etc.”
To me, the benefit of protection far outweighs the highly unlikely risk of a serious side effect.
Getting the vaccine felt exactly like getting a flu shot to me. I felt a little pinched and still feel fine two hours later. No problem.
What I felt the most was a mix of emotions – all good. I was taken aback by tears when I began to describe how I felt in front of our CBS News camera. I think the weight of all these months – caring for patients, trying to keep myself, my loved ones, my friends and so many others safe, coupled with the exciting task of reporting on the pandemic – has caught up with me.
I felt a flood of relief although I know it will still be a challenge to reach enough of the immunized population herd immunity. I felt grateful that vaccines are becoming available less than a year after we recognized that there was a new coronavirus.
And I was amazed at the scientific achievement. I logically know about the decades of research that led to my immunization. I understand how a small piece of genetic code – messenger RNA – stored in a protective lipid nanoparticle creates immunity against SARS-CoV-2 by tricking the immune system into thinking it is being attacked by the virus. But there is also a part of me that considers this amazing feat to be pure magic.