INDIANAPOLIS — As the COVID-19 vaccine begins to roll out to healthcare workers this week, health experts are answering some of the most common questions people have.
“You’re debating should I or shouldn’t I, right? Think about your risk factors,” said Dr. Kara Cecil, University of Indianapolis assistant professor of public health. “So if you’re high risk, if you’re over the age of 65 or 75, do you have other co-morbidities, do you have heart disease, do you have respiratory conditions, are you overweight or obese?”
People with any of these pre-existing conditions, health experts say, should be at the highest priority for receiving the vaccine.
An IU Health infectious disease specialist and UIndy assistant professor of public health agree; you might have some side effects, like any other vaccine.
“You start getting those fevers, fatigue, headaches, muscle aches, and it looks like you have the virus,” said Dr. Lana Dbeibo, an IU health infectious disease specialist.
But those will resolve within a day or two.
“I just want people to know that even if you get them with the first dose, please take your second despite those side effects,” Dbeibo said.
With both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, should Moderna get approved, you will need to get two doses for it to be effective. Otherwise, you won’t be considered protected from the virus.
Pfizer requires a three-week period in between doses and Moderna requires four.
“Should I prefer one manufacture’s vaccine over the other? I think I can tell you that they all went through the same vetting process," Cecil said. "In terms of safety, I would be surprised and it would have to be data driven, which we don’t have yet to see that one is preferable over the other.”
“There are more differences in how they are stored and what temperatures they’re stored at,” Dbeibo said. “But from a medical perspective, they are very very similar.”
Some people also of an allergic reaction to the vaccine, in some reported cases.
“The two that had it in Britain already were prone to getting severe allergies, where they had to carry an epi-pen around,” Dbeibo said. “So this is not your typical I have an allergy to penicillin or have an allergy to food or to the environment.”
They expect doctors will alert patients once they have the vaccine to schedule their appointment. Which vaccine people receive, however, will likely come down to access.
It’s also unclear how long the vaccine might protect you.
“I think that’s the question. That’s the magic ball question,” Cecil said. “We don’t know. We have seen that there are at least two different strains of COVID-19 that are out there, that has mutated. Is it something that will continue to mutate?”
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