Your Covid vaccine questions answered
While many will be eager to get the vaccine, there is hesitation and concern about vaccinations, largely driven by online misinformation and conspiracy theories. DR ROBERT LAMBKIN-WILLIAMS is a
respiratory virologist with more than 20 years experience in the field, and a member of Virology Consult, a consortium of experts in Virology. He answered a few of our questions about the Covid vaccines.
Are we using a new type of vaccine, and is it safe?
“One of the vaccines, the Pfizer-biontech, is a brand new type of vaccine - an MRNA vaccine. It has the benefit of us being able to manufacture it quickly, which is what we’ve done. Crucially, it does not do anything to anybody’s DNA - it does not rewrite anybody’s DNA. MRNA is a totally different thing in that context. But this new style of vaccine does make it easier and in some ways safer to roll out.”
Do you fear some people might become complacent?
“You’re looking at six, nine, maybe 12 months, before you’ve got enough people vaccinated, before we can be really be comfortable that things are under control. We aren’t in the clear. And the better people are right now at adhering to everything, the more we can cut infection rates now, then the less of a problem that the Christmas bubbles will create.”
Does it provide full immunity?
“Firstly, you’ll need to have two vaccinations for it to be effective. You’ll get some effect after one, you’ll get the full effect after two. We don’t know, particularly with the vaccine that’s being rolled out this week, whether that will just suppress your symptoms, which would mean you can still pass on the virus. We don’t know how our bodies will react exactly - we know it will give us immunity, and we know it’s safe, but we don’t know how long that immunity is going to last.”
Will there be side effects from taking the vaccine?
“Any medicine you take will have some side effects and we know there are side effects from these vaccines. Most can be dealt with with a paracetamol. There is no reason to think there’s anything serious, but we’ll monitor it carefully - and it’s gone through really tough safety tests.”
Has the development of the new vaccines been rushed?
“They cleared everything out of the way, focussed on this vaccine, pulled everybody together and had people working non-stop. So it has been rushed in the sense that it’s been done quickly, but it’s not in the sense that it’s not been taken through every step of the process that needs to actually be done.”
Why has Covid-19 caused so many problems?
“What caught us out was that you can be perfectly healthy, wandering around doing everything you normally do, but actually be infected, potentially for up to 20 or more days. That didn’t happen with SARS in the early 2000s. This time around, people can be wandering around without any temperature, without any symptoms and they can be spreading it to their loved ones, their colleagues, everybody.”
Will it hurt?
“It’s very similar to the flu vaccine - I had it a few weeks ago and barely noticed. It won’t hurt any more than that, and, interestingly, there’s research to suggest that if you smile a lot as you’re getting it, it won’t hurt as much.”
What is the most important thing people should be doing to keep safe?
“Every single time you get home, wash your hands. When you get to work, wash your hands. It’s one of the best things we can be doing at the moment.”