ONE YEAR LATER: A reflection on the anniversary of the first COVID vaccines with CCPHD’s Mike Zelek – The Chatham News + Record

CN+R STAFF REPORTS

Just over a year ago, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan rolled up her sleeve at a British hospital and made history: she became the first person, outside a clinical trial, to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.

Eight billion doses later, the vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca Plc, Johnson & Johnson and others have significantly reduced hospitalizations and deaths in countries where theyve been rolled out widely. Although more than 5 million have died during the pandemic, vaccines are credited with saving lives and reducing the severity of illness from the vaccinated whove experienced breakthrough cases.

To mark the approaching one-year anniversary of the administering of the first vaccines in Chatham County, the News + Record spoke with Mike Zelek, the director of the Chatham County Public Health Department. The goal: to look back on the past year, to assess efforts to reduce COVID in Chatham County, and in the age of Omicron cast a cautious look ahead.

Adaptability. No public health department in the last century has dealt with something of the magnitude and longevity of COVID-19, including an unprecedented vaccination campaign that is now a year in. From the earliest days of mass vaccination clinics and priority groups to the current focus on booster shots and vaccines for younger children, we have had to evolve many times throughout the last 12 months. I think back to the first months of the vaccine being available and how hectic that was, and Im thankful for how far weve come. These safe and effective vaccines are now available at many locations across the county with three different vaccine options to choose from. Were not in the same place we were a year ago.

Most of the Chatham community is now vaccinated against COVID-19, and that is a remarkable achievement. Im so thankful for all our staff, healthcare workers, community partners, and Chatham residents for their dedication and support. I am also grateful to public health professionals around the world for the work theyve done. We will never know exactly how many lives were saved because of these vaccines, but all that challenging work was worth it because of each of those lives. Chatham residents are alive today because of COVID-19 vaccines.

While we administered our first COVID-19 vaccines in late December, our first mass vaccination clinic was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 18th. To many, this is a day of community service, and the service of our staff, along with dozens of volunteers, to begin vaccinating a community against a pandemic on a holiday is something I will always remember. While we couldnt see at that point where things would be a year later, this was clearly a pivotal moment in our pandemic response.

I cant say enough about our staff. Weve got so many highly skilled public health professionals from different disciplines and backgrounds, and theyve come through time and time again to keep the Chatham community safe and healthy.

From our clinic team who administered shots and entered data, to environmental health and administration staff who planned the clinics and built an online appointment system on the heels of a cyberattack, to health promotion and policy staff who coordinated call centers and promoted the clinics, it really was a full team effort. I like to say public health is a team sport, and it takes and entire community to respond to a pandemic. Every one of these clinics required so many people to pull them off, including partners like the Ag Center, Emergency Management, the Chatham Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), N.C. National Guard, county staff, medical volunteers, and the Sheriffs Office, just to name a few.

In the months since those first clinics, we have conducted many outreach clinics at churches and sites across the Chatham community, working closely with partners like Hispanic Liaison and the Council on Aging, set up regularly scheduled events at our clinic in Siler City, and worked with other providers like pharmacies and doctors offices, as well as state-contracted entities like StarMed and Optum, to expand vaccination and testing options around Chatham. As a public health department, we have administered over 8,100 vaccinations. This is a tremendous accomplishment.

Dr. Jesus Ruiz recieves Chatham County's first coronavirus vaccine on Dec. 16, 2020, from Sharon Buchanon, a nurse at Chatham Hospital. / Staff photo by Peyton Sickles

Most public health professionals will tell you they would like to see a higher vaccination rate in their community, and we are no different here in Chatham. That said, were pleased that more than 42,000 Chatham County residents have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and that nearly 40,000 are fully vaccinated. Theyre a critical portion of the more than six million people in North Carolina who have rolled up their sleeves. Thats something we can celebrate. But we cant be complacent. Theres still work to be done, especially with booster shots now recommended.

From the beginning, you spoke about the importance of equity in vaccinations. It was something you as a department highlighted in a press release in early 2020 about how COVID-19 was disproportionately affecting marginalized communities, particularly the Hispanic population. How have you approached equity in vaccinations, and how do you evaluate that part of the work one year in?

Equity is core to public health and has been central to COVID-19 response and vaccination efforts. Focusing on equity requires us to look at the underlying factors, like structural racism, that make some more likely to have access to resources like healthcare than others, and to make intentional efforts working with community partners and community members to address these issues and the resulting disparities. For example, we saw early in the pandemic that Hispanic/Latinx residents were more likely to get COVID-19 and knew an equity-centered approach was key during the vaccination campaign.

When we look at the vaccination rates, thanks to the hard work of so many, we do not now see disparities where we often see them, namely among African-American and Hispanic/Latinx residents. This has been a team effort and follows the lead of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, who invested in an equity-focused vaccination campaign. Local partners, like The Hispanic Liaison, and many churches have played pivotal roles as well, and we wouldnt be where we are without them.

It takes a village, especially when it comes to health equity. Weve accomplished a lot, but we have more work to do in all areas, particularly in communications and community engagement. This is an ongoing focus of our work, COVID-19 and beyond.

COVID-19 has kept us on our toes for nearly two years, and this remains the case today. Vaccinations continue to be the main focus of our efforts, especially the younger children who recently became eligible and getting more folks a booster shot.

A COVID-19 vaccine is the best tool we have for preventing severe illness and death from this virus, and its been very good at preventing infections as well. Getting vaccinated and getting a booster shot is especially important as we move through winter. We are seeing an uptick in cases and are now back and high community transmission. We are also beginning to see an increase in hospitalizations due to COVID-19.

While there is much we are still learning about Omicron, it reinforces the importance of the strategies we have been talking about for a long time. Omicron does appear to spread more easily than previous variants, including among those who have already had COVID-19 and those who have received two doses of vaccine.

We expect it will show up in Chatham in the near future and will likely account for more and more cases around the state and country. That said, boosters appear to continue to work well, and we expect the vaccine will continue to offer a good amount of protection against severe illness and death. This is ultimately what matters most and what vaccines are designed to do.

For those who are at least six months out from their second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or two months out from their J&J shot, go ahead and get your booster shot if you have not yet done so. This will boost protection and can bring you some piece of mind as we move through the colder months. While we are eager to get more data on Omicron, we can find some reassurance knowing that we have tools that can help to protect us.

Note: Zelek will be a guest on an upcoming edition of The Chatcast, the new podcast from the News + Record. It will be released on the CN+Rs social media platforms in the coming week.

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ONE YEAR LATER: A reflection on the anniversary of the first COVID vaccines with CCPHD's Mike Zelek - The Chatham News + Record