Local physician on vaccine: We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel – What’s New LaPorte?

Dr. Lars Kneller, family physicain and medical director of Beacon Health, La Porte, and Dr. Jennifer A. Alderink, DO, family physician and co-site director of Beacon Medical Group, La Porte, pose with their vaccine certificates after they received the Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at Franciscan Health Michigan City on Dec. 19. (Photo provided)

Story by WNLPs Bob Wellinski

Its not often people are excited about getting a vaccine to the point they couldnt sleep the night before. But for Dr. Jennifer A. Alderink, DO, and other healthcare workers, this isnt just any vaccine. Its a vaccine of hope.

Alderink, a family medicine physician and co-site director of Beacon Medical Group, La Porte, was one of several hundred healthcare workers to receive the first round of Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 mRNA vaccine at Franciscan Health Michigan City. Administration of the vaccines started on Dec. 18.

It went great. I was really excited to know it was starting and were finally taking a step forward I couldnt sleep the night before, said Alderink.

With the vaccine comes hope of life getting back to normal.

We definitely have more hope than we did three months ago. Then we really didnt know a date on vaccinations, and COVID cases were surging, said Alderink.

She described development of the COVID-19 vaccine as remarkable, noting that everyone involved in creating and approving the vaccine managed to shrink a 3-to-4-year process into nine months, with safety and efficacy a priority.

Its not something weve experienced before, said Alderink. Innovation often comes out of necessity, and it was an emergency. Shrinking that time down was out of necessity. A lot of things had to fall into place, a lot of funding had to fall in place, for this to come about quickly.

But the biggest component of the equation was the technology used to create the vaccine.

You have to go back to high school biology and look at a model of a cell, said Alderink.

The vaccine utilizes strands of genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA). Alderink explained that scientists replicated the genetic code for the unique spike protein on the COVID-19 virus. The code is placed in a lipid fat molecule, which protects the mRNA from enzymes in the body. It also allows the mRNA to enter muscle cells near the vaccination site. Once inside the cytoplasm, the cells recognize it and then produce the spike protein from the message on the mRNA.

After the spike protein is made within the muscle cells, the body very quickly recognizes it as foreign and starts producing antibodies to destroy it. From there, the information travels through the lymphatic system to the lymph nodes, where the body makes immune cells.

Its pretty cool. So that if were exposed to the actual coronavirus, our immune system is already primed against it, said Alderink.

She said another cool thing about the mRNA is that it cannot get into the cells nucleus. Nor can it survive very long, and it is quickly broken down.

mRNA technology has been used in cancer treatments and, according to Alderink, has been underdeveloped for more than 10 years. The technology has been sitting there waiting for us to do something great with it.

She said mRNA was going to be used for the SARS outbreak in 2003, but that event fortunately didnt turn out to be an epidemic or pandemic.

The Pfizer-BioNTechs two-dose vaccine will provide 95 percent protection. A week after the first vaccine, the patient has 50 percent protection. The second vaccine, three weeks later, provides 95 percent protection after a week.

Its pretty quick, said Alderink.

She said the medical community is uncertain right now if the vaccine is effective against the new virus turning up in Europe and Asian countries. And its not clear if patients will have to be revaccinated in subsequent years after the initial vaccination.

Alderink understands the hesitations of some who are nervous about the new vaccine.

Im a physician and Im very trustful of my colleagues, physicians, scientists. (But) I can understand the other side, the people being nervous about something that appears so new and that went through the studies so quickly. None of us have ever been through this before so thats a normal response.

Regarding that hesitation, she explained the twofold importance of having frontline healthcare workers go first. One: so they can continue to work and take care of people without the fear of getting sick. Two: helping put the public at ease about the new vaccine.

My hope is that with health workers and essential workers going first, we can show that it is safe and that it is working so that people will start trusting this new technology and the vaccine, Alderink said.

Since the mRNA vaccine doesnt introduce live or inactive viruses into the patient, theres no chance of getting sick from it. Alderink said some side effects could include a mild headache, enlarged lymph nodes a day or two after being vaccinated, low-grade fever and/or body aches. These are more common after the second dose, but less common in people 65 and older, according to the study.

As for Alderink herself, It wasnt really any more sore than the flu shot.

In a pandemic like this, were asking people to take that leap of faith. Thats the hard part about a large-scale vaccination program like this. Were asking people to do something to protect themselves, but were also asking people to participate in public health in doing something for all of us, including close family members, the community and people they come in contact with. Thats a tough thing when people are dealing with a lot of stress, said Alderink.

Were beyond the point where weve got to find a way to move forward and I think the vaccine definitely provides us the best opportunity at this point to do that.

Alderink believes that with the vaccine, it will be another six to nine months before life starts to return to normal. Were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

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Local physician on vaccine: We're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - What's New LaPorte?