COVID-19 vaccines teach our immune system how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19. It takes two weeks after vaccination for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19. That means 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.
If you’ve been active on social media you might have seen some friends and family posting their pictures of their covid-19 vaccination cards. You might be feeling drawn to get vaccinated or have negative emotions and are bothered about the whole vaccination process because you don’t know what will happen. Pharm. Possible Jumbo (an intern Pharmacist) was among the first group of pharmacists to receive the vaccine when it was made available to frontline workers. She says the process took less than 30 minutes. In her case, she received a notification after scheduling an appointment in a recommended government facility.
The vaccine takes about 20 seconds to administer. Once you get the shot, they give you a card that has the date it was administered the date for the next dose and the type of vaccine that you received. Then, they use a timer to monitor you for at least 15 minutes afterward just in case you were to have that rare allergic reaction while you’re there.
Here are some side effects of the Covid-19 vaccines
On the arm where you got the shot:
There may be some pain around the area of the injection or swelling. You may be feverish after taking the vaccine, have chills, be weak or tired and you may have headaches.
Cost of Vaccines
COVID-19 vaccination providers cannot:
Charge you for the vaccine
Charge you any administration fees, copays, or coinsurance.
Charge an office visit or other fee to the recipient if the only service provided is a COVID-19 vaccination.
What You Can Start to Do:
You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart.
You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people of any age from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks or staying 6 feet apart, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
You do NOT need to get tested before leaving the country unless your destination requires it.
You still need to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding a flight out of the country.
You should still get tested 3-5 days after international travel.
You do NOT need to self-quarantine after arriving in the country.
If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested.
Working together to end this
Dr. Jafar Abunasser, a pulmonary specialist spoke on the vitality of keeping our eyes open about the spread of the virus. CDC’s recommendations are important, maintaining physical distance, masking, and gathering in groups indoors or with a lot of people till community spread is contained.
CONCLUSION
For herd immunity to be achieved, where the spread of the infection is resisted by immunity, then about 50-80% of people need to be vaccinated. Everyone appears to be excited about how effective the vaccine has been so far. Looking throughout history mankind has dealt with infectious diseases and pandemics. Pandemics were brought to an end by social distancing, hand washing, and mask-wearing. This whole ordeal will soon be a thing of the past and normal living will return.
REFERENCES
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-happens-when-you-get-the-covid-19-vaccine/
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/staff/14476-jafar-abunasser
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/how-much-of-the-population-will-need-to-be-vaccinated-until-the-pandemic-is-over/