Centenarian receives Pfizer vaccine, doing well

Alden Estates of Shorewood held its first clinic for the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 28.

And 100-year-old Evelyn Garofalo was eager to get hers.

Garofalo, a former acrobat, isn’t tired of the pandemic. But she’s been healthy all her life – yes, even during COVID - and she credits three things for its: performing acrobatics into her 40s and vaccines.

“We went to public school in Chicago,” Garofalo, who grew up on the South Side of Chicago during the Depression, said. “And we got every kind of shot that was free. My mother made sure we got them.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 11.

The FDA said side effects of the Pfizer were more common after the second dose. Those side effects may include “pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, joint pain, and fever,” the FDA said.

But Garofalo said she had no side effects, including any allergic reactions. And except for a little arm soreness in a couple of people, no one else did either, said Stephanie Popp, the administrator at Alden Estates of Shorewood.

“Everyone else reacted very positively,” Popp said.

Popp said 47 of the Alden Estates of Shorewood’s 100 employees received the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 28, as did 18 of the 59 residents.

But more are signing up for the Jan. 18 clinic, Popp said.

“Some were apprehensive,” Popp said. “But now that they’ve seen round one, they’re singing up for round two.”

Alden Estates of Shorewood is hosting its third clinic for the Pfizer vaccine on Feb. 3. So any residents and staff who want to participate in that clinic, must sign up the Jan. 18 clinic, Popp said.

The Pfizer vaccine will confer 53% immunity with the first doze and 95% immunity after the second dose, Dr. Christopher Udovich, medical director at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, said in a Dec. 16 Herald-News story.

Popp said staff and residents could decide for themselves whether or not to receive the vaccinations. For residents who could not make that decision on their own, managers talked to the residents’ family members.

Managers also provided information about the vaccine to staff and residents, Popp said.

“We gave them all the facts and information on the vaccine,” Popp said.

Popp has currently not heard if Alden Estates of Shorewood will receive any of the Moderna vaccine.