Hugs, and Other Reasons Not to Fear the Vaccine
Later this month, my husband and I will go to Denver to hug our daughter, son-in-law, and two grandsons for the first time in months. The freedom and peace of mind the vaccine has given us is priceless.
But according to a recent report from city officials, only 20% of MorningSide residents eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine have gotten it. This doesn’t bode well for beating back the virus and getting back to something resembling normal for all of us. We can do it, but first we have to handle the concerns some have about the vaccine.
An elderly gentleman receives the vaccine. Image courtesy of Jim West
Fear of vaccines isn’t new. When the smallpox vaccine was developed from cowpox around 1800, rumor had it that the vaccine could turn you into a creature half-human, half-cow. That sounds ridiculous to us today, but there’s no shortage of equally far-fetched stories circulating about mind control, GPS tracking, and gender changes allegedly associated with the vaccines.
Skepticism is understandable. When I first heard in early 2020 that the former president was promising a vaccine by the end of the year, I said “No way.” As a nurse, I had worked on cancer drug trials, so I knew how long it takes to get new products properly tested then approved by the FDA. I assumed the former administration would pressure the drug companies and FDA to do a slapdash job, cutting corners, ignoring red flags and burying negative side effects, resulting in a vaccine that would be ineffective, unsafe, or both. Fortunately, I was wrong.
The reasons why all this happened at “warp speed” are pretty straight forward.
Researchers in the US and around the world put most other medical research on hold to focus on developing Covid-19 vaccines.
Coronaviruses aren’t new. This one is just a variation of the same family of viruses that caused MERS, SARS, and Zika, so scientists weren’t starting from scratch.
Normally it takes years to recruit enough volunteers for the large scale clinical trials you need to determine if a new drug is safe and effective. But when the call went out for volunteers to test the Covid-19 vaccines, the public response was tremendous. Within just a few months, 74,000 people had signed up for either the Moderna or Pfizer trials.
If you’re fighting a disease that develops slowly, it can take years to determine the effectiveness of a drug. In this case, though, Covid-19 has been spreading so quickly throughout the population that researchers started seeing outcomes for the vaccines right away.
In short, we have just seen what great things we can accomplish very quickly when the whole world works together on a single mission – to save lives.
A Nurse applies the vaccination shot. Image courtesy of Jim West
What about negative side effects or links between the vaccines and other sudden adverse events like strokes or heart attacks? The good news is that these are most likely just a coincidence. Let’s consider the big picture. In any large population, thousands of people will be getting sick, having heart attacks, strokes, or getting diagnosed with a wide range of diseases every day. Unless we see a sudden increase in heart attacks, for example (and we haven’t), just among those who’ve been vaccinated, we can assume that the connection was coincidental. Just because two things happen at around the same time, it doesn’t mean that one event caused the other. To put it in scientific jargon, correlation is not causation.
Mild side effects like arm soreness, headaches, and fatigue have been fairly common after receiving the vaccine. Some people have a stronger reaction to the second shot than to the first, which is just a sign that the vaccine is doing its job and making the immune system actively respond. A few people have had severe allergic reactions, as happens with any other medication, but these are quickly treatable.
Detroit is a role model for the rest of the country in getting people vaccinated. In some cities people tell horror stories of having to call 400 times before they could get through to make an appointment, or spending hours trying to get an appointment online. Here, all it takes is one phone call to (313) 230-0505 between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
My husband and I recently received our second shots at the TCF Center. The shot itself went very smoothly both times. We stayed in our car, and the whole process only took 45 minutes, including a mandatory 15-minute wait time to monitor for allergic reactions. Other MorningSide residents have reported similar positive experiences.
There are also legitimate concerns among African Americans about possibly getting a less effective vaccine. Unequal treatment of Black patients has occurred throughout US history, and research shows that it continues today, including treatment of Covid-19 patients. But let’s keep two things in mind: first, we are not as sharply segregated by race as we once were, especially in public places. Second, unlike sickle cell anemia or high blood pressure, Covid-19 is an extremely contagious airborne illness. If any group is not vaccinated, there’s a huge risk of new outbreaks and a longer pandemic. Public health experts and medical professionals of all races know this, so they want to protect everyone.
Seniors have been among the first to receive vaccination shot. Image courtesy of Jim West
For updated information about vaccine eligibility, which seems to expand just about every day, go to: https://detroitmi.gov/news/city-expands-vaccine-eligibility-include-manufacturing-workers-adds-two-additional-senior-saturday
If you’d like more details about the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines and how to separate fact from myth, check out these links:
https://aepc.us/the-covid-19-vaccine-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt/
https://aepc.us/follow-the-science-what-we-need-to-know-about-the-covid-19-vaccine/
For information about how the new one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine works, check out: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/28/johnson-and-johnson-covid-vaccine/
And for a feel-good story about how the vaccine is lifting the spirits of health care workers and residents, check out this one: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/covid-vaccine-joy-hope/2021/02/24/62b10432-7184-11eb-85fa-e0ccb3660358_story.html
