Nurse receiving the first public COVID vaccine.
There are three vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, the Pfizer – BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID vaccines. According to the CDC, by the 15th of May, 37.6% of the U.S population has been fully vaccinated, with 274 million doses of the vaccine being given. And now that the use of the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for people 16 years or older
Now the main subject is whether or not you decide to get vaccinated or not. Some people are rightfully concerned about the long term effects these vaccines may have on people, mind you it takes 5 years for a vaccine to be approved by the FDA. So the question is what are the valid concerns, what are the misconceptions, and what are the pros to getting the vaccine compared to the cons? An obvious pro is that your chances of catching SARS-CoV-2 is significantly decreased, even after your first dose. People who are fully vaccinated and have waited the two week immunity period can begin to do things they used to do pre-pandemic. And according to new research by the New England Journal of Medicine, rates of nursing home residents contracting the virus has sharply decreased.
Now of course we can’t ignore the possibility of something going wrong. Some patients have suffered from Anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction to an antigen caused by a hypersensitivity to aforementioned antigen, after their shot. However, the CDC insists Anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare and occurred in approximately 2 to 5 people per million vaccinated in the United States based on events reported to VAERS. This kind of allergic reaction almost always occurs within 30 minutes after vaccination. After you get a COVID-19 vaccine, you will be asked to stay for 15–30 minutes, so you can be observed in case you have a severe allergic reaction and provided treatment if required. And while the claim the vaccine being directly responsible for patient deaths is completely unfounded, you should really weigh the risks of getting the vaccine, as the long term affects are still unknown, but you may find some solace in the fact no one has yet found a reason to fear the long term affects of the vaccine for any other reason than the uncertainty behind it.
Covid cases peaked in January, with about 300,000 cases in the course of one week, but now that vaccinations are being made more public every day, and every day tens of thousands of vaccines are given, we have seen a drastic decrease in positive testing for SARS-CoV-2. About 48% of the U.S population has received the vaccine, and we are getting ever closer to life going back to normal. Whether you think the vaccine is a microchip made by Bill Gates to mind control you into eating live ducks or you believe in the science countless professionals have came out with, there is no denying that the vaccine works. Whether you get it is completely up to you.
