DCH Coronavirus Update 2-23-21
- Category: Coronavirus
- Posted On:
Rising Tide
DCH Health System is the feature story in the Winter 2021 edition of Rising Tide, the business journal of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. Here is a link to the chamber’s publications page where you can scroll down and click on the current issue. https://tuscaloosachamber.com/publications/
Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama for highlighting the DCH team!
Are the COVID-19 Vaccines Safe?
Some people may be concerned about receiving one of the COVID-19 vaccines. While more COVID-19 vaccines are being developed as quickly as possible, routine processes and procedures remain in place to ensure the safety of any vaccine that is authorized or approved for use. Safety is a top priority, and there are many reasons to get vaccinated.
Following is a compilation of pertinent information quoted directly from the CDC website (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety.html).
Vaccine Testing, Approval and Side Effects
“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines, and these vaccines have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.
“COVID-19 vaccines were evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials. The vaccines met FDA’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization (EUA).
“Some people have no side effects. Many people have reported mild side effects after COVID-19 vaccination, like
· pain or swelling at the injection site,
· a headache, chills,
· or fever.
“These reactions are common. A small number of people have had a severe allergic reaction (called “anaphylaxis”) after vaccination, but this is extremely rare. If this occurs, vaccination providers have medicines available to effectively and immediately treat the reaction.”
Current Vaccine Administration
“Over 52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through February 14, 2021.
“During this time, VAERS received 934 reports of death* (0.0018%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. CDC and FDA physicians review each case report of death as soon as notified and CDC requests medical records to further assess reports. A review of available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records findings revealed no link with vaccination. CDC and FDA will continue to investigate reports of adverse events, including deaths, reported to VAERS.”
Pregnancy Concerns
“The COVID-19 vaccine, like other vaccines, works by training our bodies to develop antibodies to fight against the virus that causes COVID-19, to prevent future illness. There is currently no evidence that antibodies formed from COVID-19 vaccination cause any problems with pregnancy, including the development of the placenta. In addition, there is no evidence suggesting that fertility problems are a side effect of ANY vaccine. People who are trying to become pregnant now or who plan to try in the future may receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them.”
More Information
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama has also produced an excellent COVID-19 resource page. Following are links to the page as well as a COVID-19 facts vs. myths flyer.
https://www.bcbsal.org/web/coronavirus
COVID-19 Information
To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.
DCH Health System internal counts as of 1:28 p.m. on 2/23/21:
- 44 inpatients within the DCH system who are positive for COVID-19.
- 10 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
- Five or fewer who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
- Five or fewer who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
- 8,400 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
- 37,343 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
- 10,146 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
- 68,555 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
- 2,862 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
- 531 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH. This is not an indication of the cause of death, only that the individuals were positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
- 274 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).
