Doctors from the Texas Tech University Health System took part in a panel discussion and answered some crucial questions from people about the pandemic in a virtual town hall discussion on COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday afternoon.
The public was invited to participate as the experts from the medical field debunked some myths and talked about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in a panel discussion titled “This is Your Shot: Vaccine Facts and Science” that was held via Zoom.
The virtual event was hosted by the Texas Tech University System, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and TTUHSC El Paso.
As cases of the delta variant increase, Texas has lagged behind the national average vaccination rates.
A press release from TTUHSC provided before the discussion said only about 43 percent have been fully vaccinated, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Experts addressed numerous different topics for the first half of the event before moving on to questions from the public.
COVID cases have been climbing over the state, including Ector County which has seen 10,820 confirmed cases as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services map.
Despite the increase, Chief of Infectious Diseases at TTUHSC El Paso Armando Meza said those who are vaccinated are still much better protected than those who aren’t.
“When you get vaccinated, you are protected by a 90 percent-plus chance of not ending up in the hospital,” Meza said. “When the studies were done, we saw an additional benefit which is that it’s protecting us from these (variants).”
Dr. Ronald Cook, TTUHSC Chief Health Officer and chair of family and community medicine and City of Lubbock Health Authority echoed those thoughts and also warned about the variants affecting those who are young.
“Ninety-percent of our hospitalized patients are unvaccinated,” Cook said. “Right now, the average age of the hospitalized patient is 53; the average age of the person is on the ventilator is 48. This is affecting a much younger patient population. This is all the more reason why we really want you to get vaccinated.”
Those who have been uncertain about getting the vaccine need to take some information into account, Meza said.
“I want to emphasize that the majority of the patients who are in those hospitals with severe COVID are not vaccinated,” Meza said. “That is critical information for those who are still hesitant about receiving the vaccination. That’s an important element.”
Another question discussed was will anyone need to get a booster dose of the vaccine.
“If you are healthy otherwise and you have developed the normal protective reaction that the vaccine was going to give you, you may not need to be receiving a booster,” Meza said.
TTUHSC El Paso President Richard Lange and TTUHSC President Lori Rice-Spearman moderated the town hall discussion. The school year is starting up all across the state and country. Some school districts have already had difficulties getting started.
Iraan-Sheffield ISD announced Aug. 16 that it was closing for two weeks beginning Aug. 17 with plans to reopen Aug. 30.
One of the questions discussed was whether or not the vaccine was safe for children.
Dr. Glenn Fennelly, chair of pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases specialists of TTUHSC in El Paso, assured the public that it is safe for children age 12 years and older to get the vaccine and that there were no reasons for them to not get vaccinated.
“The first is, anyone at any age can get sick from COVID,” Fennelly said. “You want to protect your child the same way you would want to have them wear a helmet when going for a bicycle ride.”
As for those who are below the age of 12, Fennelly said there is hope that a vaccine can be approved for kids between the ages of 5-12 before the end of the year.
“There is evidence pouring in that the vaccine is indeed effective at a lower dose and we look forward to an opportunity this fall, if not before the year is over, where we can vaccinate younger children to prevent the spread of other variants in the community,” Fennelly said.
Getting children vaccinated will be crucial to get herd immunity, he added.
“Moderna and Pfizer have indicated that they will be submitting data,” Fennelly said. “I believe Pfizer will be sending something as early as September, that could lead to emergency use authorization for children down to 5 years of age and Moderna could follow by the end of the calendar year,” Fennelly said. “We’ll have to stay tuned. There are trials that have been expanded in numbers to look at the question to make sure these vaccines are safe, using a larger number of children.”
Not only is school back up and running, but fall sports are also about to begin their seasons with football, volleyball and cross country.
For athletes, there are numerous protocols required through the NCAA, as well as the Big 12 Conference that must be followed.
“There are protocols through the NCAA and the Big 12, as well, that call for close monitoring for students including surveillance testing and encouraging vaccination,” Medical Director of Student Health Services at TTUHSC Dr. David Edwards said. “The health of the athletes and the coaching staff and the athletic training staff is paramount in decision making when it comes to pursing whether or not to have an athletics season in a given sport. Many athletes are vaccinated. That, of course, reduces risk dramatically which is good in preventing the spread of the virus across the team. There are clear guidelines from the NCAA and Big 12 as to when to halt practices and when to halt a season and so on.”
The Big 12 conference released its game threshold policy Tuesday saying that teams in the conference that were unable to play a game in the fall because of COVID-19 (or any other reasons) will have to forfeit and be given a loss in the conference standings.
It’s a different story for those who are looking to attend the games.
“For the spectators, that’s a matter of balancing risk and benefit,” Edwards said. “The CDC has issued some very helpful charts that help guide activities that are lower risk versus those that are higher risk, depending on whether things are indoors or outdoors and vaccination status. Using those types of scenarios, one can decide for himself or herself ‘what’s the risk for me to attend an indoor sporting event or outdoor sporting event and so on.’”
