Pfizer vaccine trial participant: the second dose caused a ‘fever of 104.9 degrees’
UCLA School of Nursing Assistant Professor Kristen Choi joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss her experience as a participant in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: The FDA expected to authorize the emergency use of Pfizer and BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine as early as tomorrow. That means patients can begin-- they can get inoculated as early as Monday or Tuesday. That's at least according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who mentioned that earlier today.
I want to bring in somebody who's taking part in the trial itself. Kristen Choi is UCLA School of Nursing Assistant Professor. And Kristen, it's good to talk to you today. Walk me through the process here.
I think a lot of people have questions around not the efficacy of the vaccine so much as it is about the safety of it. You've taken part in this trial since August. Walk me through the process here in terms of, you know, whether, in fact, there were any side effects for you, what you experienced.
KRISTEN CHOI: Sure. Absolutely. So thank you for having me on. I took part in the Pfizer study in August. And of course, it's a series of two injections. After the first injection I got, didn't notice much of anything at all, maybe a bit sore, but that's pretty much it.
However, after the second injection in the study, I had quite a few side effects. When I got home, I developed chills, nausea, a headache, felt pretty fatigued, and ended up feeling pretty sick. Overnight, I developed a fever and woke up in the morning with a very high fever of 104.9 degrees. At that point, that was a signal to me that I had probably gotten the active vaccine and not the placebo. And even though I felt pretty sick after that second dose, it was short-lived and those side effects were gone, really, by the end of that second day.
ZACK GUZMAN: Wow. 104.9 seems like a pretty high fever there. I'm not a nurse or a doctor, but that just seems high, generally. When we're talking about it and what you've seen in your history of dealing with vaccines, obviously Americans are pretty comfortable and pretty knowledgeable when it comes to the flu vaccine, even though we're going to need to see, in some estimations, you know, closer to about 60%-- or I don't know what-- exactly what you think we're going to need to see here to hit herd immunity.
It's kind of different depending on who you ask. But when we get up to that, knowing what you know about Americans and our views towards vaccines and vaccinations, in general, and hearing kind of some of the symptoms that might be expected from this, what are you preparing for when it comes to hoping that Americans actually line up to get this when it rolls out?
KRISTEN CHOI: Sure. So the good news is that fevers as high as what I experienced are very rare. The data coming out from Pfizer and other studies is looking like most people are not having a serious side effect, but a lot are having mild or moderate side effects. What I would really want people to know as a nurse is that these side effects, even if they're unpleasant, in the vast majority of cases they're short-lived and they're transient.
And also that the symptoms are a signal that our bodies are activating our immune systems and learning to fight the virus, which is really the exact response we want. And so I think just helping people to make that connection between symptoms and effectiveness is really what I would tell them.
AKIKO FUJITA: What about who should be getting this beyond those who've already been deemed to be first in line? We're talking about those who are elderly, those who are health care workers, as well as nursing homes. There seems to be a big debate that's happening right now, which is who is an essential worker and who should be in that next phase of this vaccine rollout. What do you think?
KRISTEN CHOI: Sure. Absolutely. So you know, there are so many groups that need this vaccine. It's really difficult to figure out how to stratify it when it's in short supply, as it will be initially here. Certainly, I think getting it out to health care workers, the elderly, essential workers, folks with chronic conditions, prisoners, all those sorts of populations where we know it's spreading I think will be a priority for us.
ZACK GUZMAN: I just want to hit back kind of, again, on the topic of maybe people overestimating the excitement out there for people to start getting the vaccine. Because obviously, we want everything to go back to normal, but-- but, you know, kind of taking an economist lens to it and kind of thinking about the tragedy of the comments, and whether or not people are going to see the greater good for public when it comes to their own individual decisions. There have been some discussions that people might need to get paid for this.
What would you say to kind of, I guess, what your expectations are-- not to ask the same question twice here, but specifically this time around with the skepticism and the side effects that are being discussed here, what are you hearing in your community for-- for, I guess, the response so far once you get past kind of the health care workers who know the importance of this, but then out to the general public who has watched this come through in the fastest development in history to get this vaccine out to the greater public?
KRISTEN CHOI: Sure. Absolutely. This is going to be difficult for all of us to educate the public about why this vaccine is important, given exactly what you just said about the process being faster than what we've seen before. What I think is really important for folks to know is, first, that we just think about the trade-offs. The risk of having COVID, being seriously ill or even hospitalized, is really serious, and it's something that, you know, if you think about it, it's a small price to pay getting this vaccine and possibly just feeling ill for a day or so.
The other thing I'd say is that it's really important that we think about how this affects our families and communities and what getting a vaccine could mean. My family-- recently, a number of my family members have had the coronavirus. I have had some family members that had to go to the hospital. And it occurred to me that if it were to become serious, and thank goodness it didn't, I might be able to go and be with them as someone who may have had the vaccine. And so I think seeing how devastating this virus has been and what it would mean to be protected for ourselves, as well as our family members, is something that I certainly would want to talk to patients about.
AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah, and certainly while there is going to be some reluctance among people who are just concerned about the safety of the vaccine, no question there's going to be a huge demand, especially just given the current-- the current uptick that we've seen in the vaccine cases themselves. There's a bit of a debate that's happening, it feels like, within the health care space about whether the additional dosage-- so if we're talking about a shipment of 2.9 million initially from Pfizer and BioNTech once the FDA authorizes emergency usage, they're setting aside another 50% here because this is a vaccine that requires two shots. Should those vaccines be set aside or should all of the initial dosage be put out there in anticipation of more coming online three weeks from now?
KRISTEN CHOI: Sure. So we know it's certainly important that folks get those second doses. And so certainly we want to make sure that we have enough for everybody to get the second dose and complete. It's very important for full efficacy to get both of those doses. The good news is that we know a lot more of these vaccines are going to be coming out. And so I think getting folks that initial dose and making sure we have it on board for those who will be very first in line is a good idea as we're waiting for more-- more to come out here.
ZACK GUZMAN: Kristen Choi, UCLA School of Nursing Assistant Professor, very important to hear your take on all this. Appreciate you taking the time, I know you're busy, to chat with us today. Be well.
KRISTEN CHOI: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
