INFORMATION ON THE COVID-19 VACCINE
VACCINATIONS AT BAPTIST HOMES:
– Baptist Homes held its first vaccination clinic for nursing care staff and residents on January 7, 2021. Walgreens clinic staff will hold two more clinics to administer 2nd doses and others who were not available during the first clinic. The next two clinics will be held on January 28 and February 18th.
APPROVAL AND SAFETY:
– FDA has authorized emergency vaccine use because the expected benefits outweigh potential risks and vaccine use is needed quickly to save lives during this urgent health crisis.
DOSES:
– Requires 2 doses to be effective, which will be given about 3-4 weeks apart. This is to make sure your body has enough antibodies to fight COVID-19. The first shot primes the immune system, helping it recognize the virus, and the second shot strengthens the immune response. Protection will usually occur about 2 weeks after the second shot.
– Getting 2 doses within 3-4 weeks has been shown to be safe.
– Similar to the flu vaccine, shots for COVID-19 may be needed on a regular basis.
– It is important and safe to also get your flu shot (you can get both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time).
BENEFITS:
– While no vaccine is 100% effective, these vaccines are anticipated to be more than 90% effective. This will greatly reduce your risk of getting sick with COVID-19 and spreading COVID-19 to your loved ones.
– Reducing your risk of COVID-19 is critical as it is a serious infection that has a wide range of symptoms, ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness, and even death. Even after recovery, there is potential for long-term health issues.
POTENTIAL SIDE EFFECTS/RISKS:
– The vaccines can cause short-term discomfort (such as headache, muscle pains, fatigue, chills, fever, and pain at injection site). Most side effects occur within 6 weeks of administration and resolve within one day to one week.
– These effects are your body developing immunity by creating antibodies to fight off the virus. When you receive the second dose of the vaccine, the discomfort can be more pronounced. This is a normal reaction.
– If you experience discomfort after the first dose of the vaccine, it is very important that you still receive the second dose a few weeks later for the vaccine to be effective.
– The FDA and CDC are continuing to monitor safety, to make sure any long-term side effects are identified.
– A person can be infected with COVID-19 when they get the vaccine, but are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. If they later have symptoms of COVID-19 or test positive for it, it does not mean they got COVID-19 from the vaccine.
AFTER THE VACCINE:
– You will not be immediately protected from COVID-19 and will need to continue wearing masks, social distancing and practicing frequent hand hygiene.
– Even though you have received your vaccine, most of the people around you have not. Widespread vaccination and immunity will likely take months.
– The vaccines prevents disease in the vaccinated person, but it still may be possible to transmit the disease to others, until the vaccine is in widespread use.