Make getting the vaccine part of your new year’s resolutions for 2021
December 31, 2020
About the Covid-19 vaccines: safety, dosage, side effects, distribution.
The 2020 “Person of the Year” is the Corona-19 virus. It has dominated the news and our lives, bringing at least fear if not outright life-threatening illness and death. It has altered our workplaces and had major, often devastating effects on personal, business, and governmental economies. The most promising salvation is the creation of vaccines that could immunize us from being infected with the dreaded virus. Beginning in December 2020 several pharmaceutical companies, after some brilliant scientific work and after rigorous population testing, have made available doses of vaccine to the public.
The available vaccines require two doses, spaced three to four weeks apart. The vaccines seem to be well tolerated and more than 90% effective in conferring immunity after the two doses. Side effects seem to be few, including pain at the injection site and minor flu-like symptoms for less than a day.
Now that vaccines are available the focus is on their safety and distribution. Who should be given the vaccine first? Prioritization is still being formulated. There seems to be agreement that frontline healthcare workers should be first in line. This designation must include not only physicians and nurses but all hospital and clinic workers including aides and those in housekeeping, dietary, orderlies, transporters, receptionists, and security. Next in line probably will be nursing and group home residents and staffs. Other probable groups for early vaccination should be teachers, the elderly, those with significant medical illnesses like emphysema, heart or kidney failure.
Many of you have been calling to receive the vaccine and, of course, we want to be able to give it to you. The distribution of the vaccine differs widely from state to state. Our office is doing its best to obtain a supply of the vaccine but at this writing we have not received any. One of the first vaccines to be made available, produced by Pfizer, requires deep-freezing capacity for storage that individual offices do not possess. Because of that we seek to procure vaccines that can be stored by conventional refrigeration.
It is important to remember that the high degree of protection comes only after both injections have been received. So masking and social distancing remain crucial ways of protecting yourselves and those around you.
Unanswered questions at this point include: how long will the vaccines protect us? Could there be late side effects? Should those of you who have had covid and recovered still be vaccinated and, if so, should that depend on how high your covid antibody levels are? What about children? Pregnant women? What about those with many allergies or on immunosuppressive medications? Answers to these and others are unclear and eagerly awaited.
Realistically we hope to be able to offer you vaccine within the next few months. We will follow national and state guidelines in prioritizing vaccine distribution. Meanwhile mask and distance. I received my first vaccine injection at Mount Sinai Hospital two weeks ago (no pain, no side-effects so far!) There seems to be a light at the end of this long, frightening tunnel. Stay tuned and healthy. Best wishes for a healthy 2021.