Commentary: Dr. Chris Urbina: Vaccines protect us all

Sep. 21—By Dr. Chris Urbina

As we work through our fifth wave of infections in Colorado during this pandemic, we have at our disposal a solution to end the pandemic — a free, readily available and impressively protective vaccine.

However, with only 70% of Coloradans immunized from either the vaccine or natural infection and 1% of Coloradans infectious right now, our healthcare system is again overwhelmed.

Intensive Care Unit bed availability is at its lowest in Colorado at any time since the pandemic began. Hospitals are pleading with the public to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and the flu to prevent the hospital system from being overwhelmed, which creates risks for everyone who needs access to healthcare whether due to a car accident or other medical emergency or need.

Data shows fully vaccinated people have less risk of hospitalization and death compared to those who are unvaccinated, and that provides even more protection for younger populations. Simply put, the vaccine works.

Using vaccines to combat deadly viruses dates back thousands of years. Vaccine technology was used in China to fight smallpox as early as 1000 CE. In 1796, Edward Jenner created immunity to smallpox and, after 200 years of improvements, his efforts led to its eradication. In 1885, Louis Pasteur developed a vaccine to protect humans and animals from rabies. Constant building and improving of vaccine technologies has allowed us to eliminate or minimize the impact of diseases including pertussis, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis, polio, and many other communicable diseases.

The development of the COVID-19 vaccines also relied on extensive research that occurred over decades. The virus that causes the COVID-19 disease is a coronavirus, a family of viruses first identified in the mid-1960s that share the "spike protein" structure. In 2002, the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus shut down the city of Toronto until public health preventative measures were instituted. Ten years later, MERS prompted international scientists to develop a coronavirus vaccine, which laid the groundwork for the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines we have today.

With the immense level of scrutiny from both the science community and the public, including the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is safe to say the COVID-19 vaccines have been more closely surveilled than any other vaccine in history.

The Food and Drug Administration requires vaccine manufacturers to demonstrate that vaccines are effective and safe, and more than 30,000 people were enrolled in each vaccine manufacturer's clinical trials. Once approved for emergency use authorization, the FDA and CDC continuously monitor vaccine recipients for any adverse events.

Since the first vaccine was administered in December 2020, 180 million Americans have been immunized, including 3.4 million Coloradans. In August 2021, the FDA fully approved the Pfizer vaccine after reviewing additional data that tracked clinical trial participants for longer-term effects and vaccine effectiveness.

The most common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines are chills, headache, tiredness and/or are pain, redness, and swelling of the injection site, which generally resolve within a day or two.

Scientists have now studied even rare side effects of the vaccine, and found, for example, that the risk of myocarditis from a natural infection of SARS-CoV-2 is four times higher (11.0 events per 100,000 people) than from the vaccine, and includes hospitalization and long COVID, which the vaccine-related side-effect avoids.

Due to the Delta variant, which spreads more than two times faster than earlier forms of the virus, we cannot let our guard down. Even with growing vaccination rates, as long as we remain in substantial or high transmission levels, according to the CDC tracker, layered mitigation precautions, such as masking and social distancing, are necessary to preserve our healthcare system and keep our kids in school, in-person.

Although Boulder County continues to be a leader in vaccinations, 26% of residents remain unvaccinated. Around 63,500 county residents are eligible but have not been vaccinated and another 23,500 are ineligible children under 12 years of age. We must continue to build our community immunity and make the right choices for to protect each other.

If you or a loved one are not vaccinated, start the conversation with your physician. For a list of vaccination clinics and providers, visit, https://boco.org/CovidVaccines. Getting vaccinated works and will keep everyone safe from the severe complications of COVID-19.

Dr. Chris Urbina is Boulder County Public Health's Chief Medical Officer