What it means to get COVID-19 vaccine
Each day, the number grows.
Since the middle of December — when the Food and Drug Administration first approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and then, a week later, the Moderna version — more and more people across the U.S. have been getting vaccinated against the deadly disease.
That includes Montgomery County, where as of Tuesday 108,827 had been fully vaccinated and 174,529 were partially vaccinated. But what does that mean? The introduction of vaccines, accomplished at previously unheard of speed, has been seen as a gamechanger in the fight against the pandemic that has devastatingly altered the world over the past year.
Finally, many believed, things would get back to normal. Finally, we’ll beat COVID-19.
But, of course, that’s not something that was ever going to happen overnight. Getting doses in arms is a slow process, bogged down by the wide gap between the number of people who want a shot and the amount available.
And the doses that are getting into arms aren’t exactly magic bullets that make people impervious to
COVID-19.
So despite vaccines being available since before Christmas, a lot of things haven’t changed. At least not yet.
As we wait, the Reading Eagle decided to take a look at the three vaccines that have received emergency use approval in the U.S. and what, exactly, they mean for those who get them.
Pfizer-BioNTech
• Emergency approval:
Dec. 11.
• Administration: Two doses, 21 days apart. A patient is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose.
• Effectiveness: Clinical trials showed the vaccine to be 95% effective at preventing symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness.
Though few people in the clinical trials did go to the hospital or died due to COVID-19, data suggest people who got the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were less likely to have these more serious outcomes than people who got the saline placebo.
• Side effects: Pain, redness or swelling in the arm where you got the shot. Tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever or nausea.
Moderna
• Emergency approval:
Dec. 18.
• Administration: Two doses, 28 days apart. A patient is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose.
• Effectiveness: Clinical trials showed the vaccine to be 94% effective at preventing symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness.
Though few people in the clinical trials were admitted to the hospital for treatment of COVID-19, this happened less often in the people who got the Moderna vaccine compared with people who got the saline placebo.
• Side effects: Pain, redness or swelling in the arm where the shot was administered. Tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever or nausea.
Johnson & Johnson/ Janssen
• Emergency
Feb. 27.
• Administration: Single dose. A patient is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the single dose.
• Effectiveness: Clinical trials showed the vaccine to be 66% effective at preventing symptomatic, laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness.
The vaccine had a high efficacy at preventing hospitalization and death in people who did get sick. No one who got COVID-19 at least four weeks after receiving the vaccine had to be hospitalized.
Early evidence suggests the vaccine might provide protection against asymptomatic infection, which is when a person is infected by the virus that causes COVID-19 but does not get sick.
• Side effects: Pain, redness or swelling in the arm where you got the shot. Tiredness, headache, muscle pain, chills, fever or nausea. approval:
What fully vaccinated people can do
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, being fully vaccinated comes with some perks.
People who are fully vaccinated can:
• Gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.
• Gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household, such as visiting relatives who all live together. Does not apply if an unvaccinated person has an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
• If you’ve been around someone with COVID-19 you don’t need to get tested unless you have symptoms. If in a group setting, like a
prison or group home, you should still self-isolate for 14 days and get tested.
Caution still required
While getting fully vaccinated does give people a little more flexibility in what they can do, the CDC says they should still take steps to protect themselves and others from COVID-19. That includes:
• Wearing a mask, staying at least 6 feet apart and avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated space when in public, gathering with unvaccinated people from more than one other household or visiting an unvaccinated person at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19.
• Avoiding medium or large-sized gatherings.
• Delaying domestic and international travel.
• Watching for symptoms of COVID-19, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick.
• Following guidance at your workplace.
Travel guidance
The CDC last week updated its guidance for travel for fully vaccinated people.
The new guidance says that fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. and do not need COVID-19 testing or selfquarantine after traveling as long as they continue to take COVID-19 precautions while traveling such as wearing a mask, avoiding crowds, socially distancing and washing hands frequently.
For international travel, the new guidance says:
• Fully vaccinated people can travel internationally without getting a COVID-19 test before travel unless it is required by the international destination.
• Fully vaccinated people do not need to self-quarantine after returning to the U.S., unless required by a state or local jurisdiction.
• Fully vaccinated people must still have a negative COVID-19 test result before they board a flight to the U.S. and get a COVID-19 test three to five days after returning from international
travel.
• Fully vaccinated people should continue to take COVID-19 precautions while traveling internationally.
Variants
Viruses constantly change through mutation, creating new variants. According to the CDC, globally-spreading COVID-19 variants of concern include:
• The United Kingdom variant identified in fall 2020.
This variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants. In January, experts in the U.K. reported this variant may be associated with an increased risk of death compared to other variant viruses, but more studies are needed to confirm this finding.
It has since been detected in many countries, including in the U.S. at the end of December.
• In South Africa, another variant emerged in early October.
Cases caused by this variant were first reported in the U.S. at the end of January.
• In Brazil, a variant emerged that was first identified in travelers from Brazil, who were tested during routine screening at an airport in Japan, in early January.
This variant contains a set of additional mutations that may affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies. It was first detected in the U.S. at the end of January.
According to the CDC, these three variants seem to spread more easily and quickly than other variants, which may lead to more cases of COVID-19.
So far, studies suggest antibodies generated through vaccination with currently authorized vaccines recognize these variants. More studies on the effectiveness of the vaccines against the variants is underway.
The CDC said scientists are trying to determine how widely variants have spread; how the disease they cause differs from the disease caused by
other variants; and how the variants will impact existing therapies, vaccines and tests.
What the experts say
Dr. Alexis Reedy-Cooper knows that the last year hasn’t been easy for anybody.
A family medicine physician and director of the Family and Community Medicine Residency Program at Penn State Health St. Joseph, Reedy-Cooper has seen the toll the disease can take. And she’s seen the impact the pandemic has had on the community, on schools and businesses, and people’s mental health.
She knows people are tired of it all, that they are hoping vaccines will lead the way back to normalcy.
But there’s still a bit of road to traverse, she said. There’s still work to do.
“Everyone is so anxious for this to be over and to return to large picnics and family gatherings and things like that,” she said. “We’re getting there, but we’re not there yet.
“We have to keep reminding people that you should still be wearing your mask, keep being careful.”
Reedy-Cooper said having COVID-19 vaccines is a great thing. All three do a good job at protecting people from getting dangerously sick, but that doesn’t mean getting one makes you impervious.
“It’s much better than not having a vaccine at all, but it’s not 100%,” she said.
Dr. Debra Powell, chief of the division of infectious disease and medical director of infection prevention at Reading Hospital, agreed, saying getting a vaccine does not ensure that you won’t still get COVID-19.
“We have had patients get COVID after getting the vaccine,” she said.
But that doesn’t mean getting a jab isn’t important. Powell stressed the vaccines make getting COVID-19 less likely, particularly a version that comes with severe illness or death.