Key things to know about COVID-19 vaccines

Apr 20, 2021 News

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Kaieteur News – “Get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you can,” is the advice being proffered by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States. The CDC has noted too that widespread vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic.
Among the key things to know about COVID-19, the CDC lists:
-COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective;
-you may have side effects after vaccination, but these are normal;
-it typically takes two weeks after you are fully vaccinated for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19.

However, even the CDC is still learning about COVID-19. It has pointed out that:
-we are still learning how well vaccines prevent you from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 to others, even if you do not have symptoms;
-we’re also still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines protect people;
-we are still learning how many people have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before most people can be considered protected (population immunity).
-We are still learning how effective the vaccines are against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Effectiveness
Turning attention to effectiveness, the CDC noted that studies show that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at keeping people from getting COVID-19. As such, it underscored that getting a COVID-19 vaccine will also help keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19.
“COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool to help us get back to normal,” the CDC has revealed. It went on to explain, “COVID-19 vaccines teach our immune systems how to recognise and fight the virus that causes COVID-19.” It typically takes two weeks after vaccination for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19. That means, the CDC noted, it is possible a person could still get COVID-19 before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to provide protection. People are considered fully protected two weeks after their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, or two weeks after the single-dose Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, according to the CDC.

However, the CDC and the Food and Drug Department (FDA) have recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine in the United States out of an abundance of caution, effective Tuesday, April 13, 2021. The Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices (ACIP) will hold its second emergency meeting to discuss J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine on April 23, 2021, the CDC has revealed. It has stated too that people who have received the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine within the past three weeks who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath should seek medical care right away.

Reminding about the importance of staying safe, the CDC said, “You should keep using all the tools available to protect yourself and others until you are fully vaccinated.”
Although COVID-19 vaccines are effective at keeping people from getting sick, CDC noted that scientists are still learning “how well vaccines prevent you from spreading the virus that causes COVID-19 to others, even if you do not have symptoms.” Early data, it noted, show the vaccines do help keep people with no symptoms from spreading COVID-19, but “we are learning more as more people get vaccinated.”
The CDC admitted too that it is “still learning how long COVID-19 vaccines protect people.” For these reasons, people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 should keep taking precautions in public places, “until we know more.” Vaccinated persons, the CDC advised, should keep wearing a mask, washing hands often, staying six feet apart from others and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces.

Safety
Alluding to the fact that millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines, CDC noted that these vaccines have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in US history. This monitoring includes using both established and new safety monitoring systems to make sure that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, according to the CDC as it reminded, “These vaccines cannot give you COVID-19.”
CDC has developed a new tool, v-safe, to help it quickly find any safety issues with COVID-19 vaccines. V-safe is a smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines.

You may have side effects after vaccination, but these are normal
After COVID-19 vaccination, a person may have some side effects. These, according to the CDC, are normal signs that the body is building protection. The side effects from COVID-19 vaccination, such as chills or tiredness, may affect someone’s ability to do daily activities, and they should go away in a few days.

Population Immunity
Achieving population immunity has been touted as extremely important in the fight against COVID-19. Population immunity means that enough people in a community are protected from getting a disease because they’ve already had the disease or because they’ve been vaccinated.
Therefore, population immunity makes it hard for the disease to spread from person to person. It even protects those who cannot be vaccinated, like newborns or people who are allergic to the vaccine, the CDC highlighted. It however noted that the percentage of people who need to have protection to achieve population immunity varies by disease.

“We are still learning how many people have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before most people can be considered protected,” the CDC added. In addition, it is still learning how effective the vaccines are against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Still learning about the characteristics of new variants, the CDC noted that early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.

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