COVID-19 Vaccines
What Is the COVID-19 Vaccine and How Does It Work?
One way to protect yourself and your community is to get a vaccinated when you’re eligible for it. One of misconceptions about COVID-19 vaccine in our community is that you can get the virus from the COVID-19 vaccines. Per VietFactCheck’s research, this claim is false.
A vaccine prevents disease, as a person develops immunity from that disease by their body developing an immune response, which in turn, produces antibodies. Traditional vaccines contain a weakened or inactivated virus. But that’s not how an mRNA vaccine works.
MRNA stands for messenger RNA, a type of molecule which tells your cells to make protein. Each mRNA has a unique set of instructions.
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine does not contain any live viruses that cause COVID-19. Instead, the vaccine contains an mRNA, which when it enters your body, it relays a message to your cells to make something called a “spike protein.” The spike protein is found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. It acts as glue to allow viruses to attach to our cells, infect the cells, and then multiply. But on its own, without the rest of the virus parts, the spike protein is incapable of causing COVID-19.
The mRNA vaccine tells the body how to build this spike protein. After the spike proteins are produced, because it is a new substance, your body’s immune system makes antibodies that then kill all the spike proteins and also destroys the mRNA from the vaccine.
A COVID-19 vaccine shows a small part of the virus to your body. The vaccine teaches your immune system, the body’s defenses, to see and fight the COVID-19 virus. The vaccine does not give you the virus. If COVID-19 ever enters your body, your immune system remembers how to fight it, because it fought something that looked like it before.
Once you have been vaccinated, you gain protection without ever having to risk the serious consequences of having COVID-19.
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is administered in two doses, with the second dose being administered 21 days apart for the Pfizer vaccine and 28 days apart for the Moderna vaccine. Though the first dose offers partial immunity, the second dose boosts the immune response to bring the effectiveness of the vaccine up to 95%.
Soreness, fatigue, and headaches are common side effects of the vaccine and typically lasts no longer than two days. Each person’s body may have a different reaction to the vaccine and side effects are normal: That’s how you know your body is having an immune response.
Even after a person has been vaccinated, masking when outside of your home, social distancing, washing hands frequently, and not gathering with people inside is still recommended. It is not known yet if you can transmit Covid-19 asymptomatically even after you’ve been vaccinated.
Schools and businesses can reopen, and social distancing eliminated, once herd immunity to COVID-19 is reached. Herd immunity refers to when enough people are protected from COVID-19, the disease cannot spread easily in the population.
To reach herd immunity, a majority of American adult population needs to be vaccinated. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said that anywhere between 70% to 90% of the adult population will need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.
To learn how a COVID-19 vaccine is recommended for public use, click here.
Vaccine Availability In the United States
There are currently 3 vaccines, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson approved for emergency use in the U.S. There may be more vaccines approved in the near future.
Currently, the supply of COVID-19 vaccine in the United States is currently limited. As the vaccine supply increases, more groups will be added to receive vaccination. The CDC has been providing providing recommendations to federal, state, and local governments about who should be vaccinated first. CDC’s recommendations are based on those of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel of medical and public health experts.
People at highest risk of getting COVID-19 or being very sick/dying from it are the first in line. Each state is making its own list. Usually, the order is:
Health care workers and people who live in long term care facilities
Essential workers like fire fighters, police officers, food and agricultural workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, public transit workers, and those who work in the educational sector
People age 75 and older living at home
People age 16-74 with a health condition that increases risk from COVID-19
Other essential workers: transportation and logistics, food service, housing construction and finance, information technology, communications, energy, law, media, public safety, and public health
Every state has its own plan for deciding eligibility of groups of people will be vaccinated first. You can contact your state health department for more information on its plan for COVID-19 vaccination.
Vaccine Protection
The vaccine is about 90-95% effective, which means that out of 100 people who get the vaccine, about 5-10 do not get immunity. As new variants of COVID-19 vaccine arise, we will not be sure how effective the vaccine will be. We don’t yet know whether getting a vaccine will prevent you from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 to other people, even if you don’t get sick yourself.
It is unknown how long immunity lasts after an individual receive their vaccination. We are aware, however, that this virus has caused very serious illness and death for a lot of people. If you get COVID-19, you risk spreading it to those who around you who may get very sick. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is a safer choice.
Experts are currently studying at how many people get vaccinated and how the virus is spreading in our communities. They are also learning more about about both natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity.
It is important to continue to follow CDC’s guidelines, such as wearing mask and staying apart at least 6 feet, even after you get vaccinated. So stay safe and continue to wear a mask, stay at least 6 feet away from others, avoid gathering indoors with people you don’t live with, and wash your hands often.
We are encouraged to use every available tools to to help stop this pandemic. Together, with COVID-19 vaccination and public health guidelines may offer us the best protection from getting and spreading this virus.
Concerns with COVID-19 Vaccinations
Many people believe that the development of current Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were rushed and are therefore, not safe. While the Food and Drug Administration speed up the approval process, the studies that were used to approve the vaccines were as rigorous as that for any drug approval. The findings that the vaccines work and are safe are reliable. In addition,these vaccins are new type of vaccine made from messenger RNA (mRNA). It does not contain any live viruses, which makes it faster to develop. Research into mRNA vaccines have been ongoing since 1976, so the COVID-19 vaccines were the results of many years of research. Read more.
The vaccine is considered safe for people with chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, or liver disease. Since people with chronic illnesses are at high risk of dying from COVID-19, they are one of the groups that has priority to get the vaccine.
You should not get the vaccine if you have had a severe allergic reaction like anaphylaxis (swelling of mouth and throat and being unable to breathe) to a COVID-19 vaccine or a chemical called polyethylene glycol (PEG) or polysorbate. If you had a severe allergic reaction to another vaccine, you should discuss with your healthcare provider whether you should get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Yet, you can still get the COVID-19 vaccine if you have had routine side effects such as pain, fever, chills, muscle aches, headaches, or nausea to the COVID-19 vaccine or other vaccines.
As for pregnant or breastfeeding people, there has not been much data on this. We encourage you to discuss with your health care provider the risks and benefits of the vaccine versus COVID-19.