One on One Interview With Corporate MedStar Health Associate Bonnie Levin

By Raoul Dennis

Bonnie Levin is a Corporate MedStar Health Associate. Levin is the Assistant Vice President for Pharmacy Services. She is among a team of people who are overseeing the system-wide COVID-19 vaccination program at all of the MedStar Health hospitals and community vaccination centers. MedStar Health has 10 hospitals that span Washington, DC and Maryland. Ms. Levin sat with Prince George’s Suite Magazine & Media in mid- January to discuss the COVID-19 vaccine, its safety, distribution and more.

MedStar Health/Levin: I am the Assistant Vice President for Pharmacy Services for MedStar Health. Actually, we’re a larger team now. There is a core group of five or six of us. Everybody’s got a role to play in this.

PGS: Is MedStar Health working primarily with the Pfizer vaccination, Moderna or both?

MedStar Health/Levin: Both. In the District and in Maryland, the Department of Health of each of those jurisdictions determine which product we get. In Maryland, we have received both Pfizer and Moderna products. In DC, it’s just been Pfizer so far.

PGS: Is there any particular procedure that you will use to determine which you will employ?

MedStar Health/Levin: We don’t really have much choice. We get whatever the Department of Health gives us. For our Maryland hospitals, right now we just have Moderna, except for one hospital where there’s Pfizer. We just had Pfizer for the first couple of weeks.

PGS: MedStar Southern Maryland has been using Pfizer, correct?

MedStar Health/Levin: That hospital used Pfizer for the first, I want to say two weeks, then we switched to Moderna. You always want to give the same product for the second dose.

PGS: That’s roughly how many people?

MedStar Health/Levin: MedStar Health is north of 30,000 people. I think around 31,000.

PGS: All the MedStar Health associates have gotten Pfizer, is that correct?

MedStar Health/Levin: Some have received Pfizer and some have received Moderna.

PGS: In Maryland.

MedStar Health/Levin: Right. The first two weeks was just Pfizer everywhere.

PGS: Right, Moderna came later.

MedStar Health/Levin: Right, Moderna came and we’ve distributed that to our Maryland hospitals.

PGS: Will patients get the opportunity to choose which one they want?

MedStar Health/Levin: No. We are, I would say, beholden to our health departments to provide products for us. The good news is that Moderna and Pfizer are interchangeable in terms of both effectiveness and safety. They both have remarkably similar data that show how effective they are and how safe they are in terms of side effects. They work the same way.

PGS: Are leaders and physicians at MedStar Health comfortable with the idea that the fast-tracked vaccine is safe? If so, why?

MedStar Health/Levin: The answer to that is, yes. We as scientists have looked at the primary data, and both companies have been very transparent as has the FDA, with the research data. That includes the number of patients that they studied and the results of those studies. When we look at the way the research was done, it conforms with the way we do other research, other drug research. They didn’t cut any corners.

The FDA review process has been completed by independent scientists who aren’t paid by FDA. They’re not paid by the drug companies. They reviewed the data and they were satisfied that it was what it said it was---which is safe and effective. I can tell you as a pharmacist, I’ve looked at the data as well as have my other pharmacy colleagues and physicians and nurse colleagues. We’re very, very comfortable with the data.

PGS: You mentioned that it builds on vaccine data that has been used before [in developing vaccines for human application]. Is that accurate? Is that what you’re saying?

MedStar Health/Levin: Yes. [Scientists applied] the mRNA process for both the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine. The process has been around for awhile, it’s been studied for a long time. This is just the first set of vaccines using that technology. It is new to the market because no other vaccines use mRNA technology, but it’s been studied for a number of years. It’s also easier to manufacture apparently, an mRNA vaccine than other vaccines, which is good for getting product down to the market.

PGS: How will people get the sense that this is safe and that corners were not cut?

MedStar Health/Levin: We call that vaccine hesitancy. It’s a huge concern in the clinical community and we understand it. People are distrustful of the healthcare community, period, and they are distrustful of this process because it’s become so politicized. Our approach is to go to the pew, one-on-one. We’ve seen that just as some of our associates are hesitant, many of them change their mind after they see people they trust get the vaccine and are fine. They live to tell the story, so to speak. We are seeing people change their minds. We are not requiring that people take it at MedStar Health. It’s a very, very important decision we made. We’re not mandating it.

PGS: Should pregnant or breastfeeding women get the vaccine?

A Medstar medical technician manages vaccine doses.

MedStar Health/Levin: That’s a really good question. They were not studied in the research trials. However, the two major medical associations that care for pregnant and lactating women have felt that the benefits outweigh the risks. They are recommending that pregnant and lactating women do take the vaccine. They should probably talk to their doctors, but there’s no contraindication. There’s no reason not to take it.

PGS: are we any closer to knowing how long the vaccine will be effective in preventing COVID?

MedStar Health/Levin: No, but the research continues.

PGS: Are we any closer to knowing anything more about long term effects of the vaccine?

MedStar Health/Levin: The answer is we don’t know because we haven’t studied it for a long period of time. There is some misinformation out there saying that it will cause a change in your DNA, and we know that it does not do that. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. It’s part of the hesitancy and the distrust.

PGS: You mentioned earlier that it’s not yet FDA approved. Can you explain the distinction?

MedStar Health/Levin: The vaccines are under a process called Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). What that means is that the drug has been studied, the research has been reviewed, but it hasn’t yet been fully FDA approved. That is a longer-term process than we’ve had time for. It’s kind of halfway between a research product and a fully approved FDA product.

PGS: It’s similar to battlefield medics dealing with critical care of the wounded: ‘We’re on the battlefield now, we need to do this now, so we’re going to go with it now,’ but there is a longer process with the FDA and they just haven’t gone completely through that as yet.

MedStar Health /Levin: That’s a good way of stating it.

PGS: It is going through the FDA process, however. Isn’t it?

MedStar Health/Levin: I think so. I know that there are a number of other vaccines in line for the EUA process. The EUA process is what has been used for several other COVID related drugs. One of them started out as an EUA and is now FDA approved. Then t there’s two more that are still in the EUA process, not vaccine but treatment. It’s a process that we’re using for COVID treatments just because we didn’t have anything before last January.

PGS: Are your operating logistics for the vaccine established in order to meet the demand of the entire area or does each hospital have the freedom to maneuver as they see best?

MedStar Health/Levin: We’ve adapted a really standardized process based on the logistics of the medication. There’s a way you have to handle them, mix them, administer them, and so we’re just following the rules and we’re doing it everywhere. We’re doing it really well, not cutting any corners.

PGS: How does it feel to be at the forefront, historically, from a medical perspective, with this vaccine? Do you feel the weight of history in working to end this pandemic?

MedStar Health/Levin: I am incredibly privileged to be part of this effort because it’s something that I will never again experience in my career. The ability to work with such smart, dedicated, people at MedStar Health, to care for our patients in a way that we hope will get us through this awful time, has just been the privilege of my career.

Since this interview took place, MedStar Health has begun vaccinating communities in Maryland and the District of Columbia. For the latest information on COVID-19 vaccines offered by MedStar Health, please visit MedStarHealth.org/Vaccine.