Hello and welcome to PBS39d WLVT Emmaus community updan coronavirus.

It's presented by Capital e Cross and brought to you wh help from our community par Lehigh Valley Health Netwo.

We are coming to you live m the public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney our yesterday include an infecs disease doctor leading a ll effort in a vaccine trial d with more kids going back o in-personlasses.

We'll also speak with the leader of the Bethlehem Ara School District.

Our guests will be with usn just a moment.

If you have a question, ple give us a call.

The phone number four eight four eight two one zero zeo zero eight will answer somf your questions live.

Plus four coronavirus upda.

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You can do that at our webe coronavirus Ligh Valley.

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You'll find helpful informn there in both English and Spanish.

Now let's take a look.

Today's top headlines.

President Joe Biden says te move by federal regulatorso place a pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccines is proof they're putting safety fir.

Some are expressing concern about the effect the hold y have on Americans already y about vaccines.

Beau Biden says there is eh vaccine that's 100% safe f, quote, every single solitay American.

Meanwhile, the number of nw Covid-19 ces has doubled in Pennsylvania over the past month as vaccine providers rushed to get shots in arm.

The state reported 5730 new cases today and 50 more de, more in thousand 500 Pennsylvanians are in the hospital with Covid-19, including 530 in intensive care, a total of 25,500 22 people in Pennsylvania have died from the virus since h of last year.

But Wolf, administration ad the Department of Health ae urging that all PSEA colle students recei their Covid vaccinated shouldn't before semester ends.

The state wants all institutions of higher leag ensure vaccination opportunities are available before the summer break.

Under the state's accelerad timeline, all Pennsylvanias age 16 and up are now elige for the vaccine.

Now let's meet our guests r the day, Dr Joseph Yose.

VEAC is an infectious disee expert and principal investigator for the Pfizer vaccine study ongoing at Lh Valley Health Network.

Also here is Joseph Roy superintendent of the Bethm Area School District.

Thank you both.

So much for joining us tod.

Dr Roy, we will be with yon just a few minutes.

We are going to begin today with Dr Yose VEAC doctor, f course.

Thank you again for joinins on the show.

You're very welcome.

Thank you for having me ba.

Absolutely.

Some big news this week.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine n pause.

Blood clots reported in six women out of nearly 7 milln vaccinations.

More than 1 million if youe already gotten that Johnso& Johnson vaccine.

And thousands in our region have many teachers and schl employees.

How can concerned should ye at this point Gamma So I tk as an individual, I don't t people to be overly concerd about their risk of havinga severe complication here.

The most important piece to point out, if you've alreay received J&J vaccine is tht this is a very low risk.

We have seen six cases of a particular type of blood ct that occurs within the veis that drain blood from the n there called the cerebral venous sinuses.

And when that occurs, unfortunately, thatould be serious.

A stroke can occur.

But I do want everyone to realize that if they have d the vaccine, their personal risk for us occurring is v, very low.

The one thing people do neo know, though, if they did receive the vaccine and dep symptoms such as a severe headache and I really do mn prably one of the worst headaches of your life, especially a headache withy neurologic symptoms.

So numbness, weakness, difficulty speaking, visual changes.

And that's within three wes of the J&J vaccine.

You want to get immediate medical attention right aw.

And the same would go for r signs of a clotting disordr such as pain or swelling ie leg, severe abdominal painr even chest pain or trouble breathing.

Those are all important res to seek medical care.

But the individual risk toa single person is very,ery w Dr Knouse we actually actuy have and symptoms of paties who have developed those ck clots.

Actually, you just had headaches.

And we're going to reiterae some of them for you so the can put them on the screen here.

Some of those symptoms and things to look out for seve abdominal pain, shortness f breath, chest pain, leg swelling spots near the injection site.

All of what you just said,s of people experiencing thoe headaches.

You just mentioned.

I'm wondering if this is gg to set off concern from evy vaccinated person who getsa headache.

What do you suggest?

What should people make sue that theare looking for in particular because people t headaches all the time Gama Correct.

And what's important to nos that this is different froe usual constellation of syms that we see after Covid-19 vaccines and that we've sen for months now after the majority of states, any ofs who've vaccinated probablyd at least one of these where commonly will experience f. Headaches may be associated with some joint pains.

Body.

We've all seen images bothh online and news reports off Covid arm and some of the different different sn changes thatan happen at te injection site.

But those are all expected.

This is going to be very different from those.

The other thing I really nd to point out is if we lookt the safety of the Antivax,o this is going to be the Pfr and Luzerne vaccines today.

It's really been astonishi.

The safety profile of these vaccines, I got to say, enp being a lot better than anf us really expected.

We really hit one out of te park on the first try with Pfizer, Anita Dunn and vacs as far as their effectivens and their safety.

We are now about four on ts ccination effort.

We currently have over 124 million Americans that have received at least one dosef vaccine.

We are over I'm sorry, rigt around 80% of individuals r age 65 who received one dof vaccine and the vast majory of those but 7 million aree Pfizer and Moderna vaccinea safety related to and has n extraordinary.

So so I don't think we wano equate what we're discussig today with J&J with what we seeing or not seeing what e Pfizer Anita Dunn the vcins because e same signal, the same concern just isn't th.

Sure.

It's a different vaccine altogether.

Of course, some providers e giving J&J, others are not.

But especially with the vae process being spe up in Pennsylvania, more people, everybody at this point ovr the age of 16 being eligib.

How will this pause on theJ vaccine impact vaccine rolt across the state?

So today, yesterday, maybee slight changes for facilits that we're going to adminir J&J.

But what I want to stress s that there is a lot of Pfir in Moderna vaccine availabe ever since yesterday when eligibility in Pennsylvania expanded to all individuals over age 16 years.

And I do think that was the right call.

Appointments are availableh Pfizer, Moderna.

That is the bulk of the vae that has been given out in Pennsylvania through both e hospitals, health centers, pharmacies, etc.

We did have a portion of te vaccine set aside as J&J fr certain groups, teachers, t responders, and other individuals.

individuals.But the bulk oe appointments for the publie going to be Pfizer and Moda and they are still going o.

Our shipments have been ber this week then than they he to date.

So really things are moving along rather unchanged.

Sure.

Early in the process theres trouble or confusion aboutn you were getting vaccines,w much allotment that you wee getting.

Do you think any of your allotment of LVHN will be disrupted because of this pause?

Maybe the vaccine's going o other networks who were expecting J&J.

That's hard to say.

We certainly haven't receid notification of that.

We don't feel there will ba major disruption just becae of the way the state was allocating J&J vaccine dat.

But we'll see over the nexw days.

Of course, vaccine hesitatn is something that is happeg across the nation, not just here in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

So what do you say to the people who see this as a he blow to their confidence?

They think you know what, s is already just the third t and it's already on pause t a couple of weeksn.

I don't think I'm going tot a shot.

What do you say to those pe Gamma So this is what the safety monitoring system working looks like, right?

There was a signal seen ina small number of individual, but the CDC and the FDA are watching this information o closely to the various reporting and monitoring systems that they have that they were able to pick outs very small change.

Somebody said looking at te numbers, hey, this is happg a little more often than it should, even though it rems very rare.

We need to pull the cord oe ain.

We need to pause the efford see what's going on.

So so right now, what's happening even as we speake Advisory Council on Immunization Practices, whh an independent group workin conjunction with the CDC ae meeting and discussing thee issues.

They're going over the information that they curry have concerning these thrombotic events and theye going to be discussing any possible changes and recommendations.

There may be some changes y that may also over the coue of the next few days or we.

It's not clear thathis will be a stoppage of J&J vacci.

I think it's more likely because of how frequent the events are that the vaccinn J&J will be resumed.

However, it's just going te However, it's just going tw that with that particular vaccine, this is a rare ri.

They'll also sort out if we need to look at certain populations.

So since all of these evens occurred and women betweene ages of 18 and 40 a they're going to consider the possibility of do we have certain groups of people nt receive this vaccinend only reive a majority vaccine Gamma But getting back to t in the big picture and big thing I want everyone to fs on again of those hundred d 24 million individuals whoe received first dose of vac, all but 7 million received Melania vaccine.

There is enough and will be enough Eddie Moran a vacci.

That's the Pfizer Moderna vaccines to go around for y American.

I don't want to say we dont need the J&J vaccine, but e will be enough of the other vaccine round to get immun.

I don't want this to pvent anne have any hesitation at all about the safety or effectiveness of the Pfizer Luzerne vaccines.

They are getting it done ad they've got a very safe mar thus far.

So what about the people wo are already scheduled for Johnson & Johnson vaccine upcoming appointment?

Should they keep them at ts point?

They're going to have to sd by.

I mean, I'd like to say cot the facility where you schedule, but I think that could be a bombardment of s that no one would be able o handle.

I know that groups are Penn State is looking at getting other vaccine Pfizer Moderf possible, to those facilit.

Some of those organization, particularly if they're pharmacies, may already haa supply of a vaccine that ty will be able to swap over r those for those appointment So I think the thing to dos just going to be to sit tit and they should be receivig communication either throun automated phone message orn electronic message from the organization they were scheduled with.

But at this point, the hospital's health bureaus n our region have been only receiving Moderna and Pfizr vaccines.

So so those appointments wl not be disrupted by is.

Some great information.

Dr USVI, we actually have a caller question.

This is from Bernadette in Hazelton.

She says she was with her granddaughter who just tesd positive two days ago.

Shld Bernadette get tested for the virus?

I should point out that Bernadette had her second e of the Pfizer vaccine April first.

So April first.

She gets the vaccine this , her granddaughter tests positive for coronavirus.

Should she get tested for e virus Gamma Should she OK,s she protected?

Big questions with the time of the effectiveness, these vaccines.

Yeah, great.

Great question.

And one that's coming up o.

Unfortunately, these days e seeing a surge in cases boh statewide and locally.

And the transmission of ths virus is not letting.

So unfortunately, we're geg a lot of questions about Covid-19 infections or exposures right around the time, either the first or second dose.

So in this case, thankfull, Bernadette and thank you fr getting immunized and doing your part to help help ends epidemic just abo fully protected by the vaccine.

People are considered fully immunized when there are to weeks the second dose of vaccine she likely has some protection already given tt the exposure was only two s ago.

It's a little early to conr getting a test, but again, since she wouldn't technicy be considered fully protec, she's not a full two weeks after the second dose.

Probably a good idea to quarantine, though.

I do feel her risk of acqug Covid-19 would be quite lo.

We typically do not recommd teg for individuals after an exposure until it's beet least five days from the exposure because it will ta little bit of time to have enough virus to test posite if you did acquire the infection.

But I think the Bernadetten feel very confident with te fact that she's almost two weeks out from her second e of vaccine, that she is gog to be protected against infection and if, God forb, she did become infected, we would almost certainly expt her symptoms to be mild.

So I was just going to askf she did go and get tested h getting the vaccine just a couple of weeks ago.

Would she test positive?

No, there would be no posie result possibly expected te related to the vaccine, the vaccine that is not transmt the virus again, Melania vaccines only transmit a sl segment of the genetic matl of the virus, the RNA that codes for the spike protei.

And that's what we develop immunity against.

So no, she would not test positive in any way becausf he vaccine.

If she tests positive, it's because she has a Covid-19 infection Dr Knouse VEAC, e mentioned at the beginningf the show and we've talked t this on previous shows, yof course, are leading a grouf Pfizer trial participants t LVHN.

Any updates with that trial yet?

We do.

It was only, I think three weeks go that we last spok.

But since then we've had at of new information come out regarding both the Pfizer d even in the last 24 hours e Moderna vaccine.

So so as I mentioned last e that we were conducting the six month visits for the tl and we were in the midst of going abou doing that, we w have results so Pfizer of publicly released results showing that at six monthse vaccine is still 91.3 perct effective at preventing any symptomatic Covid-19.

symptomatic Covid-19.That'h rates of protection against No significant safety concs noted just in the last 24 s of Moderna release, just ay were able to state that thy will be more than 90% effee at six months after compleg their six month visits.

95% effective against preventing severe disease.

So, so great, great results both in the clinical triald real life.

No significant safety signs seen with Moderna as well.

And in addition, although e didn't participate in the pediatric arms of the Pfizr trial at Lehigh Valley, th2 to 15-year-old age group da has been released, which ws demonstrated to be 100% effective in preventing Covid-19 in that group.

This is the Pfizer vaccined there were only eight cas.

So we got to take the 100%h a little bit of a grain of salt.

But no difference in safety profile from the older gros of both adolescents and ads that were tested so ongoin.

Great newsith the Maretti vaccines proving to be very safe and very effective.

I would have no hesitationt all getting one of those vaccines, some promising results for sure.

Dr Joseph Roy use VEAC from Lehigh Valley Health Netwo.

As always, thank you so muh for joining us.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

We continue this community update coronavirus on PBS3d you can hear the rebroadcan the radio tonight at nine n 91 3W LVHN.

We want to also invite youo join us tomorrow night at 7:00pm as PBS39 preses a special community conversan on vaccines and communitief color.

We'll speak with the direcr of Pennsylvania's Office of Health Equity as well as or experts and stakeholders on closing the health equity p for underserved community.

Again, that's seven o'clock tomorrow night on PBS39 and streaming at PBS39.org ando on Facebook.

Now let's bring in our next guest.

Joseph Roy leads Pennsylvas 6th largest school district Bethlehem this week welcomg back elementary students fr days a week.

It's been a long time just getting to this point, Dr , thank you so much for joing us.

I realize you're just a coe of days in haven't even gon through the week yet.

But what are you hearing fm parents and staffers so fa?

Let's start there.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Yesterday was the first day with students back to five level.

It felt like the first dayf school.

It felt like everybody comg together.

We had students who haven't seen their friends for ovea year now with hybrid groups coming together, got to see their friends.

I visited a few schools a w more today.

Everything was going smoot.

I think the anxiety build p was worse than the realityf having more kids in the classroom.

Everyone is stillassed minimumf three feet distane in the classrooms.

Most classrooms I saw it'se than that six feet distancr when we're eating in the cafeteria.

So erything went very smoothly these first few d. I couldn't be happier in my two elementary aged daughts went back for the first tie and the best thing I heards my third grade daughter sag I made a new friend today because there's a new studt in her school that she hadt had the chance to meet allr long and who now will be ir class.

I love that.

I bet the kiddos are really excited to just be back ane their friends and be able o interact with each other.

Yeah, that I mean, the drig force is for us.

And first of all, we had to wait until the conditions e right and we had the suppof the medical experts and the Bethlehem Health Bureau, te driving forces, obviously academics, you know, goingo school two days a week, learning at home is not the same as being your teacher.

So the academic concerns of getting back for a quarterf the year underore normal circumstances.

But then the other piece ie social emotional piece reay worried about students beig isolated at home, not in tr normal circumstances, not n the routine of going to sc.

So my hope is that this lat nine weeks will get us back into that routine, will definitely make progress wh students when they're withr teachers twice as much timr the last nine weeks.

We'll see the academic progress.

We'll get them re socializd and then we to have a lot f summer programs as well.

To support students so that when we come back in the fl we won't have the anxiety r the summer at the elementay level.

What's it going to be like?

What's it going to be liken we come back in greater numbers?

So I'm really excited that we're able to do this and u know, we have our fingers crossed for continued succs for the next number of wee.

Absolutely.

Dr Roy, it's got to be incredibly difficult to mae these decisions, balancing health and safety and thene mental well-being of these students and the acadec well-being of these studen.

What kind of conversationse you had with your team abot this about that balance and making this final decision, you know, the balance all g is exactly what you said.

e academic and social emotional well-bing of students on the one end ves and they need to be in schl versus the safety issue off bringing people together inside.

And so my one my rule frome beginning is we're not doig anything that is not suppod by the experts, by the infectious disease doctorsy the epidemiologist, by the Bethlehem Health Center and recommended by the CDC.

So we've stuck with that.

That's why we opened with e hybrid model because we cod only have we had to keep sx feet distance.

And you can't have schoolse not built to have six feet social distance between students.

So we went to the hybrid wn it became doable and recommended that three feet with growing research we he not had the spread in schos here or most reports show nationally.

Then we got the go ahead ae elementary level to reducet to three feet social dista, which makes it possible toe kids come back at the secoy level.

The CDC's guidance right ns at three feet is three feed masking.

Of course, with three feet.

Distance is OK, but not whn you're community is in the highest spread category as defined by CDC and unrtunately Northampton County is one.

It has one of the highest s of new infections in of ale 67 counties of Pennsylvani.

So at the secondary level, we're not in a position toe the support of the of our medical experts that we ren to say bring back the high school kids any idea when t will happen?

In the guidance when caseso below 100 cases per 100 thousand residents of the county in a seven day perid and Northampton County hasn over 300 the last several weeks, maybe around 317 lat week and last week.

So we're pretty far cry frm that right now.

Sure, sure.

Well, we'll just have to wt and see that maybe next fa.

I want to talk more about e kids in a moment, but I wao get back to what the doctor just mentioned about people getting the J&J shots.

We talked a lot about that.

One of that prime core gron Pennsylvania.

The people who receivedhe Joson & Johnson shot were educators, people working n the school.

What are you hearing aboutt are you hearing from your educators at this point?

Yeah, well, you know, thats came out yesterday morninge morning that our teachers e coming back to full classet the elementary level.

And I was like, oh, you goo be kidding.

Because they were anxious s already Melania they now te teachers who have given soh are going to be coming in o fuller classes wondering, y God, am I having a symptomf the J&J issue?

So so we sent t information right away to our all of or employees that came from te Health Bureau and the CDC.

Just whatever official wors coming out, symptoms to lok for.

If you have any concerns, contact your family doctord so you know that definitely raised anxieties.

But we're trying, just as e doctor said earlier, you k, focus on if you have sympts that are outside the ordiny and within the time period, most of our teachers have n vaccinated for more than 14 days at this point.

So I think that would put m outside of the critical con period for J&J.

But no doubt that was not t needed yesterday morning fr our elementary folks or for anybody.

Sure.

I'm sure it added to their stress and anxiety of just going back to school.

I do want to get back to te learning and educating sidf things.

Districts were ordered by e federal government to give state standardized tests.

You personally said you're opting out of giving your n children the pieces.

How come can you elaboraten that?

Yeah, I mean, we should noe giving standardized tests s spng.

We're just getting kids ba, especially at the elementay level, getting kids back io the classroom.

We push the test to as latn May as we as we can.

But here's the bottom linet our design for specific purposes and this test was designed these tests were designed to assess student learning over a full, compe school year.

So the test doesn't match t happened this year.

I gave the exam.

It's like it's like let me teach a unit on history anm going to give you a geomety test.

The test that's a little extreme, but the test doest measure what occurred this year.

So it's invalid and then it will be unreliable becausef the conditions the studente taking.

So we shouldn't give it.

It's not it will not genate useful data for us to asses individual student progress because of the conditions t are taking it, not to mentn we don't get the results bk until October or November.

So the kids are already ino the next school year that's under normal circumstances.

But now it's particularly t useful.

So as a parent, I've said,u know, the fifth grader anda third grader know I'm not g to have them sit for the tt when I it makes them anxio.

I know that particularly fy fifth grader, the's no there's no useful informatn that's going to come to mea parent or an educator.

And so, no, my kids won't e taking it.

And so the question when we sent out an email to elemea parents just today because people are asking why is ta big question this year?

Because typically we you k, we give the test.

99% of the kids take.

But the question is much is being raised by parents no.

And so we're trying to proe fake cues and the pros ands because for good reasons, people may say, I want my d to take it, take the test grade.

We're doing it.

But if parents want to opt, they just need to email thr principal and say not this year.

Sure could be stressful.

And I could take one less g off their plate.

Dr Joseph Roy from the Bethlehem area School Dist, thank you so much for joing us today.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

We want to thank you for joining us for community ue on coronavirus will be herr PM each Monday, Wednesday d Friday on PBS39 and on the radio those same nights ate 30 on WLVT our news.

We'll be back Friday at for withew guests, including Jh Josh Shapiro of Bethlehem a Public Library.

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A phone number is four eigt four eight two one zero zeo zero eight four PBS39 and T ANIZDA Brittany Sweeney CD.