IDPH Director Warns Of COVID-19 Vaccine Myths, Promises Privacy

CHICAGO — Misinformation and rumors about recently developed coronavirus vaccines are running rampant, public health officials warned. The point was underscored Thursday when a reporter asked Gov. J.B. Pritzker at his daily COVID-19 news conference whether it was true people who receive the vaccine will be prohibited from air travel. (It is not.)

Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said she recognized some members of the public have concerns about the safety of the vaccine, especially early on in its mass distribution. Public health officials will provide all the information needed for people to make informed decisions for themselves, she said.

"We can't assume that every single person will want the vaccine, for any number of reasons, but we have the expectation that we will have accurate information available for everyone to make the best decision possible," Ezike said.

Speaking at Thursday's news conference in Chicago, Ezike said she intended to receive a vaccine as soon as it is her turn. Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, the first doses are set to be limited to health care workers and residents of nursing homes. Essential workers are expected to comprise the second group.

"I do trust in vaccines. I trust in the development and approval system that has been created in this country, and from what is known, the safety and efficacy of the vaccine has been evaluated appropriately," Ezike said.

An advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended the emergency authorization of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

"I encourage people to learn for themselves from medical research experts and be able to discern the myths from truths," she said. "There is a lot of misinformation, so please obtain credible medical research expert information as opposed to just social media myths that are going around."

The IDPH chief said pubic health officials will track each dose in a state registry and see if some populations are opting out of vaccinations.

"We will be able to see if there are communities or pockets that aren't having that same uptick," Ezike said. "Then we can look, because sometimes it might be that it was available, but people didn't want it, and try to increase any outreach efforts to see if there are additional questions or concerns that people have."

After the first months of the effort, when vaccines will be limited to certain priority groups, Ezike said public health officials will organize mass vaccination drives in parking lots, malls and existing community-based COVID-19 testing sites.

"I think over time, more and more people will say, 'Oh, I want it now,'" she said. "I think there's some people who may not want to be the first, but with time you'll have more and more uptake, so we have to have people get to it in their time."

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When asked about concerns from immigrant communities over sharing the state's registry with federal authorities, Ezike said her department would protect the privacy of patients.

"We will protect the information of all the people who get this vaccine. We want to make sure that the message is clear that everyone can get this vaccine and it's free to everyone. No cost to everyone," she said. "Yes, we need to make sure that we give numbers in terms of people who are getting immunized, the state has to have that so that we can know which areas have been vaccinated, which areas haven't, which ethnic groups, which neighborhoods, et cetera.

"But we will do all that we have to do to make sure that we protect the status of everyone who gets a [vaccine] and we don't want anyone to be discouraged in any way from coming forward to get this important resource once it's available."

RELATED: Illinois Vaccine Plan: First Doses Could Be Just Days Away

Despite welcoming recent data showing a decline in new cases and hospitalizations, Pritzker gave no indication he is planning to relax any of the additional restrictions on businesses and activities put in place last month amid a surge of new cases before the end of the year.

"We unfortunately still have hundreds more Illinoisans in the hospital fighting COVID-19 than we did at our spring peak, but we're also hundreds below our overall pandemic record, the date of Nov. 25, and remember, these are all on seven-day, rolling average bases to account for single-day anomalies," Pritzker said.

The highest number of COVID-19 patients in Illinois hospitals on a single day was 6,171 on Nov. 22, according to the IDPH website.

"All that said, I cannot overstate how preliminary this progress is," Pritzker said. "We are at a time of year when traditional gatherings are usually abundant, and because of the severity of this pandemic, it's really never been more important not to do so."

Pritzker and Ezike both urged the public to hold smaller, more intimate gatherings this year. Ezike noted that existing public health measures must be combined with vaccines to wipe out the virus.

"Only when people adjust their personal behaviors, with the mask and the distancing and the avoidance of gatherings — combined with the vaccination — will we get to end this pandemic and get to our normal way of living," she said.

"I urge you not to plan an end-of-year party or a holiday party, and the large gatherings that we're used to, but start planning for the 'end of pandemic party' for next year."