- The year 2020 marked the period in our world history when modern times came face to face with a global pandemic.

The world of medicine, as though transported back to medieval times, was at the mercy of disease.

Almost a full year later, we are at the cusp of overtaking coronavirus with a lifesaving vaccine.

But this vaccine comes with fear, skepticism and even distrust, even more so in the black and Latino communities.

Today, we hope to debunk some of the myths of the vaccine, get an expert's advice about talking to our kids about it, and have an honest, upfront discussion with someone who recently got the vaccine.

Our first guest is Dr Jennifer Janco from the St Luke's University Health Network.

Thanks for joining us today, Dr Janco.

Gracias por estar con nosotros.

- Muchisimas gracias para oportunidad.

- Let's get started.

There are over 100,000 Latinos residing here in the Lehigh Valley.

They make up about 8% here in Pennsylvania.

But there is considerable hesitancy among this community.

How could low vaccination rates among this group affect the rate that we go back to our normal?

- Now, that's a great question and I'm really glad you asked it.

I think it's so important for every community to get fully vaccinated against Covid with this Covid vaccine.

And what we know is that some parts of the community are getting infected with Covid more than others, and the Latino community is no different.

So it is incredibly important that we get this vaccine into all members of the community so that we can get over this virus.

What I'll tell you is we need about seven to eight out of every ten people to get the vaccine, to get what's called herd immunity.

That means if enough people in the community have the vaccine, there's no place for that virus to go.

And that's how we can slow the spread, get rid of this disease.

Historically, we've done that.

We've gotten rid of smallpox for people old enough to remember that.

And we've really gotten rid of polio for all intents and purposes in the United States.

And we've done that through a robust vaccination program.

So if people want to get rid of this disease and they want to get their lives back to normal, vaccination is definitely the way to do that.

- Doctor, analysis of collected data from around the country, from around the United States has shown that Latinos and communities of color have experienced a far greater impact, negative impact as a result of Covid-19, more so than other racial and racial backgrounds and ethnicities.

So why do you think that Latinos and black and brown communities are less likely to trust the vaccine?

- I think there's probably many things historically and in current culture that contribute to that.

I do think there's a basic distrust of something that's new and I've seen that before with many new vaccines that come to market.

People just aren't sure.

And even myself, I had questions.

This was a new vaccine and I wanted to understand that.

So what I did is I took to the literature and I read the studies and I educated myself.

And after doing that, I have no doubt in this vaccine and was actually one of the first people to get vaccinated once it was available in our community, not just for my own health, but I want to show people that's how strongly I believe in the safety of this vaccine, that I'm willing to be one of the first people to get that vaccine.

So I think people oftentimes are just afraid of something that's new.

To your point, though, I do think some people just have just a distrust in, you know, where the vaccine is coming from.

And there's been a lot of things going on in our at our own community, in our in our cultures, in our in our country lately.

That has highlighted some of that distrust, and I think we really need to work to get the education out to people that they understand the safety of this vaccine.

I don't want anyone, anyone to get sick from Covid because they didn't get vaccinated because we didn't get information to them about how safe it was.

- Now, when it comes time for the general public to receive the vaccine, how accessible will it be to non English speaking residents?

You know, what steps do you think can be taken for equitable distribution of the vaccine to everyone?

- Absolutely.

We want every eligible person to get this vaccine.

So there are information that we have on our St Luke's website.

The CDC also has information in both English and Spanish about the vaccine itself.

So the CDC is an excellent source of information that does have information in both English and Spanish.

The other thing that I would say as a Spanish speaking provider, I can talk to my patients in Spanish.

And so I would encourage people to talk to their own doctors to be able to get that information straight from the person that they trust the most, and we'll give you information.

So your doctor's offices, your family practice office, you know call them and we'll we'll explain it to you and get you signed up to get these vaccines.

The process is actually very easy.

It's an actually an electronic process, but if phone call is easier, we can do that in a phone call.

The process of actually getting the vaccine is also very straightforward as well.

It takes literally just a few minutes with about a 15 minute observation period.

And we're putting vaccination sites throughout, within the St Luke's community, throughout all of our 11 hospitals.

So we try to make it very accessible to people by putting the vaccines in their communities.

And there are certainly many other programs that are setting up vaccination sites as well.

So we're trying to make those sites easy to get to.

- So let's debunk some of the myths of the Covid-19 vaccine, the first being it was rushed and therefore isn't safe.

- Sure.

I think that's a natural first way to think about this.

But when you really dive into things, the vaccine was not rushed.

And the perspective that I have is I've seen many vaccines come to market in my 20-plus-year career.

And you know what the process is for that, because we know how we've done this with other vaccines.

When you look at the what was done for this vaccine, it went through every step of the same process that we've done for all the vaccines that we routinely use in our population.

It went through phase one trials and phase two trials.

It was tested actually in more people.

So some people think it should have been tested in a lot more people.

Vaccine trials typically have maybe about 30,000 patients in the trials.

The Covid vaccine actually had more than that.

35-45,000 patients were enrolled in those trials.

So I think people just think in their mind that vaccine trials have more people than that, but it really doesn't.

I think some people also say, well, you know, "How do you know that it's really safe?

"How do I know I won't have a side effect?"

So, again, we look back to how other vaccines come to market.

So most short-term side effects are the immediate allergic reaction type of side effects, and that's possible with anything.

It's possible to have an allergic reaction with food, with medications, and with vaccines.

I think most people would be surprised to learn that the likelihood of having a reaction, an allergic reaction to penicillin, is way higher than to having an allergic reaction to this vaccine.

But that is a possibility.

And that's why we observe patients for about 15 minutes afterwards.

What's considered longer term side effects in the vaccine world are generally seen within about those 6-8 weeks after the vaccine was given.

So I think people think in their mind that long-term side effects are things that happen five, ten, 15 years down the road.

But there's really no vaccine that we currently use on the market that has had side effects that were only detected years and years and years down the road.

Those types of side effects are found within those 6-8 weeks which is why we didn't go, the companies that made the vaccines didn't go for FDA approval until they had eight weeks worth of data to present to the people that approve these vaccines.

And then it went through the same processes.

It goes through two separate committees with about 50 different reviewers, as we would with any other vaccine.

So I think those things are important for people to know that they might imagine what vaccine process is.

But when we look at comparing it to what the vaccine process is for every other vaccine that we do, it has followed suit in all of this.

The technology of using what's called mRNA is great new technology, which allows us to actually produce vaccines faster.

But it's not done in an unsafe way or by skipping any steps.

It's just an advancement of technology.

It's kind of like how a computer does things faster than by doing things on paper.

It doesn't make the computer unsafe.

It's just faster technology of how we can do things.

- And this next myth, "If I had Covid-19, "I don't need the vaccine."

- We do know a lot of people have already had this disease and so they will say, well, you know, "I've already had it and I survived it.

"Do I need to get vaccinated?"

And my answer to that would be yes.

And there's a couple of reasons why.

With natural disease, we're still learning many things.

But what we know now, that with natural disease, meaning you've had Covid-19 illness, you have your body makes some antibodies.

Antibodies are what our body produces to help combat infection.

But we don't know that those antibodies last a long period of time.

So, you know, they may last a couple of months, maybe about 90 days.

But after that, we don't know that they're sticking around in your body, which means you are, again, vulnerable to get the disease.

We've already seen people who had Covid once, maybe in March and then six months later got it again in the fall.

So we've actually seen that happen in people.

So to think that you've had it and you have lifetime immunity, we have nothing to say that natural infection gives lifetime immunity.

So your natural antibodies will eventually fall to a low enough level that they're not that protective for you.

But the vaccine gives much more robust antibodies that offer you better protection.

And so that's one way.

We also know that there's some variant strains that are coming around.

So just because you had one strain of the virus doesn't mean you couldn't get another strand of the virus.

We know that those variant strains are not just coming, but they're here.

And so getting vaccinated would be a good way to help protect against that as well.

And I would actually add my third point is just because you've had the disease doesn't mean you couldn't be reinfected and spread that to somebody else.

So maybe you get infected and you have a mild case, but you are contagious and have now spread that to somebody else who hasn't had the disease and doesn't have protection, like a child, like your parents or grandparents, and then somebody else really vulnerable gets sick.

- We're running out of time, Doctor.

So I want to end on this point.

In your professional opinion, is there any insight you can share with us, any additional insight or any other thoughts that you have on this topic?

- I think this this vaccine is an incredible opportunity and I would encourage every eligible person to get it.

I think I am saddened and personally distraught at the thought of somebody not getting vaccinated out of fear, out of lack of information and getting sick.

I have seen what this disease does.

You all have seen what this disease does.

We need people getting healthy.

We need people to stop getting sick, to stop getting in the ICU.

We need our children back in school.

We need our people back in work and our businesses back open again.

And this is the way to get there.

And I think any safety concern that you have, I'll speak to any individual who wants to hear me.

But it's that critically important that we band together as a community so that we can beat this.

It only works if we're going to work together.

- Well, Dr Janco, I appreciate all the wonderful information that you've given us today.

Thank you for the work that you're doing at St Luke's.

We really appreciate your time and sharing your insight with us today.

My next guest is Dr Mary Mason, mother and founder of Little Medical School, which offers hands-on interactive after school programs that inspire interest in medical science.

The Covid vaccine may cause fear and hesitation in grown adults, let alone what a child might think.

Dr Mason is going to share some helpful tips and ways we should be talking to our kids about the Covid-19 vaccine.

Thanks for being with us today, Dr Mason.

- I'm happy to be here.

- I mentioned Little Medical School a few seconds ago.

So let's start there.

Tell us more about it.

- So I started Little Medical School back in 1999 when I came up with this concept of running mini medical school classes for kids.

I grew up in a medical family.

My mother was a pediatrician, and I was really trying to recreate those activities that she would bring home from her pediatrician office when I was a kid.

So, Little Medical School is about doing role playing, having the kids wear white coats, put stethoscopes around their neck and do activities like real health care professionals would would do.

And we do this in after school programs, summer camps, birthday parties.

But then now we also have a toy line.

- Doctor as a result of the pandemic, our kids have come to know masks, social distancing, even handwashing as a normal way of life.

So when our kids ask us if the vaccine means that we can go back to normal life or the way things used to be, what do you say?

- With Covid, kids are scared.

I'm a mother.

I see it with my youngest, my ten-year-old.

So and what we really try to do at Little Medical School is arm kids with facts.

Try to explain to them what is going on, why we're social distancing, what is the science behind it.

But we have them also do that while taking the role of a health care professional.

How would you give this advice about Covid to your patients?

One of the things that we did is we have this social distancing kit, and this is something that we put together that really has kids learn about the distancing, about how to measure out six feet and why we do that, how to wash their hands correctly, even has two masks in here and stickers about social distancing, about spreading the word, about doing it correctly.

And they can even get a certificate to be a social distancing expert.

When you do these type of activities and you make it a little more exciting and fun, it takes away the fear because they understand the facts.

And a lot of, that's the advice I like to give parents about this.

- As a mom of a little one, I know firsthand that all words matter, right?

So what types of words should we use when we talk about the vaccine to our kids?

- Scientific, evidence-based, tested by scientists.

Those are the type of words that we like to use and sometimes in our classes, parents will come to me because we always try to pick words of the day that sometimes are bigger and more complicated than you would expect kids to be able to say.

But believe it or not, they like to learn these words and they they are proud when they can say these big words and understand them.

So don't be afraid of trying to teach your kids words and scientific concepts that seem more complicated than they would be able to comprehend, because they really can rise to the occasion.

And then when they hear it on the news, they know what's going on.

- Now, you work a lot with children, so I want to ask you, in your experience, I mean, what have kids been asking you?

You know, what questions have they had and how do you respond to those questions?

- A lot of the questions kids have is they repeat what they hear on the news and they want to know because it came to the market so quickly, is it safe?

And did they rush through things and miss a step?

And what we tell them is that vaccines have been around for many, many years and the science that developed them is very well thought out.

And what we did with the Covid vaccine is we fast tracked it.

So, yes, it is safe, even though it came to market much quicker than we would have expected, the scientists still checked all the boxes and made sure it was safe.

And they tested it in a way to make sure that if we get it as a community, that we are going to be OK. - What if a child asks a parent a question that they don't know the answer to?

Would you say it's OK to tell the child that you don't know?

Or what advice can you give parents about what they should say and how they should tackle that situation?

- We tell kids when we're in Little Medical School that health care professionals don't know the answer to everything.

And it is much better to say, I don't know, but I'm either going to look up the answer or ask somebody who does know, then tell them something that is incorrect.

And that, I think, is so important for kids to say because they often think of scientists and medical authorities being the know-it-alls.

And that's, and it's good for them to learn that it's OK to say, "I don't know the answer."

- If you were to summarize all of the advice that you've had to give to parents who are struggling to talk to their kids about the Covid-19 vaccine, what are some of the key takeaways from all of that advice?

- Be honest with kids.

Let them ask questions.

You might be surprised what is going on in their heads because sometimes you don't think they're listening to the TV or they don't understand it, but they really do.

And I think when especially if you watch the nightly news with your child, they're going to see a lot of things that look very scary.

And we need to be able to address those and not let the kids just sit there and worry about it.

And then later on, they're dealing with so much more stress than if you just would have been able to address it along the way.

So be, have, be open with your conversations with the kids, and don't be afraid if you have to bring in your family physician, a teacher, even an instructor from Little Medical School to to really ask about these things and talk with them, talk with your kids about them.

That's really what you want to do.

You don't want to hide it from them.

- Can you provide us some more information for our viewers about Little Medical School?

- If you go to that littlemedicalschool.com, we have all sorts of information on there about our online classes and also our educational kits and also opportunities for classes, where we are holding them throughout the communities.

- Well, Doctor, I really appreciate your time.

Thanks for sharing your insight with us.

I know it will be helpful for me as we continue to move on in this pandemic and for other parents who are watching as well.

Thanks again.

My next guest is actually a Lehigh Valley resident who's received the vaccine, Carolina Hernandez, thanks for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- So you got the vaccine, you know, how did you manage to get it so quickly?

- That's a great question.

So I actually have a health condition that qualified me under the Pennsylvania guidelines for distribution.

So I was...

It's a good thing and also not my favorite thing that I actually qualified right now.

So that's how I was able to, with the Bethlehem Health Bureau, register to receive my first round of the vaccination.

- Now we talk about vaccines a lot and we talk about it with doctors.

So I think it might be beneficial to hear it for, from your words, what is all entailed in getting a vaccine?

What was that process like?

- Yeah, I think that the process is one that is an interesting one.

It is, so, it felt a little bit like by luck.

I read from the city, from the mayor's press release that there was, Bethlehem Health Bureau was releasing some shots, some vaccinations and to review if you qualify.

I did.

I verified with my doctor just to make sure because I, I did not want to skip in line in any way, shape or form.

I wanted to verify the what I knew about my health condition qualified.

And it did.

And so then I went online and registered for an appointment and showed up down at Moravian College to receive the vaccination.

There was this huge line and it was quite the process.

But I think that the most important thing is that the online process through Bethlehem was relatively easy compared to what my mom and I went through.

My mom lives in Miami, Florida, and to sign her up for her vaccination was very challenging.

- I bet.

I mean, and it differs from state to state and region to region, really.

As far as proving health questions or a screening, was there anything else that you had to do?

- No.

So what I did was what the, there's a thorough questionnaire that you fill out to indicate your name and on all kinds of things that you have to answer and release waivers to.

And then I was... Just because of my age, I was cautious about, "I don't want it to be seen as this, "as if there's any mal intention "in getting there early."

I did print out from my Lehigh Valley Health Network, what is it that they call it, the system that they have.

I printed out my health condition to verify.

I think that at this point they were taking people's words for it if you have a health condition.

But we always, I always just want to make sure that I have proof just in case.

- That's awesome.

There's a lot of talk about side effects.

You've received the vaccine.

So have you received any side effects?

- Let me tell you, I was a little bit anxious, I'm not going to lie, about the side effects because it feels a little bit like you never know how your body's going to react to the vaccination, just like you don't know how your body's going to react should you have Covid, and so I was a little bit nervous about it.

I have to say that I did have a sore arm for about 24 hours, and then after that I was, it was fine.

It was, it was hard not being able to lift up your arm.

I felt like I couldn't lift up my arm very high, but it went away very quickly.

- And you haven't received your second dose yet?

- No, I receive it in a week or two on the 22nd.

- Nice.

You know, whenever you look at commercials for medications, there's always a long blurb at the end that says "These are the potential side effects.

"Watch out for this or for that."

So, you know, when you went to get the vaccine did the nurse say anything like should you do anything different as a result of receiving your first dose?

- No, I do know that the same happened for me here as it did for my mom in Miami, is that once you receive your your vaccination, they do observe you for 15 minutes just to make sure that you don't have any immediate reaction to it, because I believe that if you from what I've read and from what I was, what was shared with me was that if you do have an immediate reaction, then we want to make sure that we take care of it rather quickly.

But other than that, it was, "You're good, go home.

"And if and if you feel anything "that you should be concerned about, then call right away."

- One thing that people are starting to talk about more and more is the hesitancy about getting the Covid vaccine, especially among black and brown communities, the Latino and black communities.

So for your part, let's start with this question.

Was there any hesitancy on your part for getting the vaccine?

- Initially, there was.

I have to admit, I was a little bit anxious about receiving a vaccine in that I did not fully understand how something could be developed so quickly.

To be honest, I was a little bit anxious about it.

Fortunately, I heard Dr Rajika Reed from St Luke's Community Health, talk about the vaccine a few times in different spaces, and she really kind of calmed my nerves.

And also hearing, Dr Fauci, I mean, how could you not listen to him and feel comforted by the science and the research behind it?

But I will have to admit that I was a little bit anxious, particularly because our vulnerable communities, like our black and brown communities, are the ones most severely impacted by Covid.

And so I was a little bit anxious about about the research behind it.

But I have to say that hearing the experts and really kind of processing it it made me confident enough to when an opportunity came up, I made sure to put my mom in the line to get her vaccination.

And when the opportunity became available for me, I definitely jumped on it.

- There are some people who still may find themselves in the middle of the road trying to figure out where whether or not they're going to get the vaccine.

So what would you, what advice do you have for those people?

Is it just try to inform yourselves as much as possible or what else can you do?

- I think the best thing that you could do is listen to and do the best research that you can do.

I think that there's an abundance of information which sometimes could be nerve wracking because it could feel like there's conflicting information.

But I do have to say that listening to, looking at what St Luke's and the Lehigh Valley Health Network have released, I think that their dashboard, their information and their accessibility to getting really the right information has been super helpful and comforting.

So I would say lean into that.

I do have to say my mom was initially concerned also about the vaccination and my grandfather, whose birthday would have been yesterday, actually he would have been 97.

He passed away in April from Covid in a nursing home.

And I think that that led us to being cautious and realizing the significance of Covid.

It's, it's, it's...

It impacts and destroys families.

And so you have to do what is best for you.

However, take the opportunity to do all the research that you can, especially what our local leaders are saying about it.

- I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather.

- Thank you.

- Have you found yourself needing to quell any concerns from friends and family members that reach out to you?

- Not many people have been as hesitant as I thought that they would be regarding the vaccination.

Even I have one of my closest friends who is from Coopersburg, and I was initially worried that she was going to be like, "I'm not going to take that.

"I'm not going to get the vaccine when it's possible."

And she's already thinking of that, like, "Well, my "16-year-old son, when can I get him the vaccination?"

Like it's already...

I think that this has gone long enough where people are like, "Hey, anything that could do so, "that we could go back to whatever our new normal "will be, we could go back to living life "outside of our own little quarantine bubbles.

"Let's do that now."

- Now, we're running out of time but I want to touch upon this quickly since you mentioned Lehigh, you do volunteer work through your job.

How has Covid impacted your job and the students that you work with?

- You know, it's it's a different environment to be in.

I think our our students are getting a different experience.

But I think you cannot underestimate the the faculty and staff are trying to do everything to keep our students engaged and create a sense of belonging on our campus community.

For volunteering, which is what my office particularly does, it's been a little bit of a challenge because we know that there are needs, but we know that the agencies and partners that we would work with are working with the most vulnerable community in our in our town.

So it's been a delicate balance of how do we do what we can do as safely as possible.

And so it's been a little bit of a balance.

We've spent a lot of time on the education piece.

So things like working with the Hispanic Center to have educational health equity summits on different issues has been particularly important for us.

- Well, that's great Carolina, I'm glad to hear about the work that you guys are doing with Lehigh and the Hispanic Center and glad that you're able to come on the show and share your experience with the Covid vaccine.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- I want to thank our St Luke's University Health Network expert, Dr Jennifer Janco and our other guests, Dr Mary Mason and Catalina Hernandez, for being with us today.

And thank you for tuning in.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

If there is a medical subject you'd like for us to cover, send me a message on social media.

You can find me on Facebook and Instagram.

Plus, you can tune in to hear more of my reporting on 91.3 FM WLVR News, your local NPR news source.

I'm Genesis Ortega and from all of us here at Lehigh Valley Public Media, stay safe, be healthy and cheers to your health.