Column: Vaccine good for the entire community

The arrival of the Pfizer vaccine last week at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center was moving to witness — there was such a mix of intense feelings among the staff, so much hope, relief, happiness and gratitude that a vaccine’s finally here.

To me, knowing the science behind the mRNA vaccines very well, it was an easy decision to be vaccinated myself. But I understand and respect that it’s not a straightforward decision yet for a lot of people. There’s an amazing amount of disinformation out there about vaccines as well as about COVID-19 itself, and a lot of hesitancy and mistrust that needs to be overcome.

In terms of risks, the large clinical trials of these two vaccines showed them to be extremely safe in different age groups and ethnicities, which is very reassuring. All vaccines cause some side effects; they’re designed to stimulate your immune system, and it’s natural to feel some symptoms as part of that process. Allergic reactions to any drug or vaccine can occur, and we’re seeing some of that with the Pfizer vaccine, but I think this issue will prove very manageable if we’re careful about how we administer the shots.

As COVID-19 vaccinations expand outward from health care workers and skilled nursing facilities, they’ll become available to large segments of the public, and there are some aspects of vaccination that are important for people to start thinking about.

Choosing whether or not to receive a COVID-19 vaccination once it’s offered to you is, in large part, a decision that balances what we don’t yet know about these vaccines — how long they’re protective, and a complete safety profile — against what we do know about COVID-19 itself, which is an infection that can turn your life upside-down, and which you can easily spread to people you care about. We also know now that at least some individuals can catch COVID-19 twice (!) — hence, the recommendation to be vaccinated even if you’ve already recovered from the infection.

It’s also crucial to understand that vaccines can only end pandemics if a large percentage of the population chooses to be vaccinated. That’s what herd immunity is really about — until most of the herd is immune, the entire herd remains vulnerable. Getting vaccinated yourself won’t bring your life back to normal or protect you fully unless most other folks make the decision to do so as well.

Like a lot of the choices we make that feel entirely personal, choosing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine actually affects your community as well, profoundly so. It’s like driving on a busy freeway; it’s not all about personal freedom, there are a lot of people around you whose health is directly affected by your choices. Freeways aren’t safe unless nearly everyone chooses to drive carefully. Vaccines work in the same way, because we’re much more interconnected than we understand. Long before technology made that clear, infectious diseases have taught us that.

Ultimately, I think it’s the smart choice to be vaccinated on a purely personal level — trust me, in nine months of caring for patients with COVID-19, this is an infection worth avoiding. But being vaccinated will also help bring those around you to safety, and it helps get our community to a better place and our lives collectively back to normal. If we want 2021 to be a good year — and I think it can be a great one, a really historic year — the great majority of us will need to choose to be vaccinated against COVID-19. It’s a small leap of faith, I know. But it’s an incredibly important one to take.

Tarquin Collis, MD, is chief of infectious disease with Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.