Stand with health care in support of COVID vaccinations

We are pleased to share a column from our own Chief Clinical Officer Rosalie Tocco-Bradley, PhD, MD. The column was published in Crain's Detroit Business this week.

?As chief clinical officer of Trinity Health Michigan's eight hospitals, every day I'm confronted with the frustrating reality that this pandemic is not over.

?My colleagues are exhausted and worried, and I am, too. We're worried about the patients we care for day after day. We're worried for our children returning to school and our immunocompromised friends and family members.

?We see that worry magnified in our communities — parents unsure of how to best protect their children, adults navigating returning to in-person work, pregnant women wanting to do what's best for their babies. Many are questioning what to do to put an end to the worry.

?For those of us in the medical community, the answer is clear: Get the vaccine.

?The COVID-19 vaccines continue to have mounting evidence of safety and efficacy – particularly for our most vulnerable community members.

?We are confident that while the Pfizer vaccine's recent?approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration?came expeditiously, it does not come without the highest standards focused on health and safety for all.

?More than 163 million Americans have safely received the vaccine already. As more data has been collected, the vaccine is now?firmly recommended?for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

?The delta variant is up to 60 percent?more transmissible?than previous variants and is filling our hospitals, which is why medical experts are recommending a third vaccine dose to provide additional protection and to stay ahead of aggressive COVID-19 variants.

?Additional doses, or boosters, are a very common and routine immunization practice. Many safe and effective vaccines have booster doses, such as Tdap, MMR, shingles and more.

Boosters are often used as protection wanes over time, but even more so as viruses change or mutate, which is the case with the delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19).

?Less than 1 percent of Michigan cases?since Jan. 1 are in fully vaccinated individuals — evidence that these vaccines are working incredibly well to prevent infection.

?Vaccines are not a silver bullet for stopping any disease — no vaccine is 100 percent effective.

?But they are the best tool in our toolbox for slowing the spread, lessening the severity of the illness if you do get sick, and protecting those in our communities who can't be vaccinated or did not develop immunity.

?The medical community has been working tirelessly for more than 18 months to stop this deadly, global pandemic. And with the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, the responsibility to end this has shifted from medical experts alone to the population at large.

?I urge every business owner, education leader and Michigan resident to stand with the medical community in support of the vaccine.

?Asking our workforce and students 12 years and older to get vaccinated ahead of returning to in-person programming, at a time when more than 98 percent of current cases are unvaccinated, is taking a stand in support of ending this pandemic.

?To not do so is to shirk our collective responsibility and is disheartening to medical professionals who, like me, know that the science behind vaccines is not a matter of opinion but an indisputable fact.

?Stand with us. Stand in support of the vaccine.

?Dr. Rosalie Tocco-Bradley?is chief clinical officer of Trinity Health Michigan.