Dr. Melanie Swift: COVID-19 vaccine urgency as delta variant continues to spread

Dr. Melanie Swift: COVID-19 vaccine urgency as delta variant continues to spread

Viruses constantly change through mutation, and new variants of viruses are expected to occur. Multiple variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been documented, including a highly transmittable form of COVID-19 known as the delta variant.

The delta variant, which was first seen in December 2020 in India, is spreading globally. It's more contagious than the previous strains that have been detected in the U.S. It's also causing more severe illness.

Dr. Melanie Swift, co-chair of Mayo Clinic's COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Distribution Work Group, says now is the time to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
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We really need to take advantage
of this time right now

when we have the vaccines.

They are freely available
for everyone to get vaccinated

so that we can stop the spread
of the Delta variant,

but also we can prevent
the development of new variants.

The situation with the Delta variant
can't really be understated at this point.

We are really at a pivotal moment

in the pandemic right now.

We were on the downtrend
in the United States

with increasing vaccination rates
and decreasing new cases,

and what has happened

is that we've gone
from having our first case

of the Delta variant,
in the United States in March,

to it now being the vast majority
of our sequenced cases.

The Delta variant, which was first seen
in December, in India,

is more contagious
than the previous strains

that we've had in the United States,

but it's also causing more severe illness.

So that is causing
hospitalizations to increase,

ICU admissions to increase,

and we're looking at another wave
of the pandemic.

So it's more contagious,
and that's concerning.

It's more serious, and that's concerning.

The messenger RNA vaccines
are highly effective against this variant.

We have that information
from clinical studies,

as well as from laboratory tests

of what we think
the immune response should be.

And so they're showing,
clinically, in the UK,

where the Delta variant
has been taking hold for many months now,

that those mRNA vaccines
are still highly effective.

So over 80% for infection
and 90% or so for severe disease.

So it's still very important
to take those vaccines.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine

is probably also going
to be very effective.

There are some early studies

looking at the laboratory measurement
of our immune system response,

that are very promising

and show really good response
to the Delta variant.

But we don't yet have large numbers
of people in clinical studies

to see what the impact
of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is

on the Delta variant just yet,

but we're very hopeful that
that's going to be positive as well.

We want everyone
who is able to get vaccinated

to get vaccinated.

We've sort of stalled out
in the United States

with our vaccination rates,

and nationally,

only half of the population
has been fully documented,

a little less than half.

And there are some states
that are doing better

and some states that are lagging behind,

and we're seeing that those states
that have lower vaccination rates

is where the Delta variant
is spreading the most.

People have often been waiting to see
how people respond to the vaccines

and what kind of side effects happen.

If people have been waiting to see,

now's your chance
to go ahead and get vaccinated,

because we've seen
that people do very, very well.

Side effects are mild;
they're self-limited.

These vaccines are incredibly safe.

Now is the time
for people to get vaccinated.

That's really the only way
that we're going to stave off

what could be a really devastating
next wave of this pandemic.

There have been a couple
of more serious adverse events

that were so rare

that they didn't occur
in those large clinical trials

of more than 40,000 people.

So when we're talking
about things that are so rare,

it's a few in a million.

You can't detect those
even in very large clinical trials.

So what we have done

is we have these really robust
surveillance systems

to detect more rare problems,

and we have detected a few of those now.

The first one was the bleeding
and clotting problem

that was associated
with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,

which was also seen with other vaccines
in that same platform -

the AstraZeneca vaccine -

and that primarily affects women under 50.

And it's still incredibly rare,

and it is still safe for women
to take either kind of vaccine.

The second condition that we found
through this vaccine surveillance system

is myocarditis, which is associated
with the mRNA vaccines

in predominantly males,

and it appears to be more common
in younger males.

But adults, including older adults,
have also experienced it.

And myocarditis
is an inflammation of the heart,

and it's really rare.

People don't often talk about it
or know about it.

But it actually is a complication
of COVID infection.

It's also a complication
of other viral infections,

and when people have this,
they often don't know the cause of it.

But unlike those clotting
and bleeding disorders

that was found in women associated
with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine,

this is a condition
that's pretty straightforward to identify.

Standard treatment is conservative care

with some medications,
like anti-inflammatory medications,

and people do very well

and go home from the hospital
and recover fully.

I would say it is still safe
and recommended

for everyone to be vaccinated,

even with these rare conditions

that have been found
to be associated with the vaccines,

because the risks are far outweighed
by the benefits of vaccination.

We have not seen any concerns
for reproductive side effects

from any of the COVID vaccines,

and that includes fertility
as well as birth outcomes.

These concerns arose
out of an internet rumor,

which is actually a complete fabrication.

There is no concern for safety
of women who are pregnant,

women who are trying to conceive,

or for future reproductive development.