Since the new coronavirus took over the entire planet, life as we know it has changed. Many of us have lost friends and loved ones, and many of us live in a constant state of stress and anxiety about our health, bills, the economy, etc.
Luckily, it seems that we already see the light at the end of the tunnel after a year thanks to the creation of different vaccines against COVID-19. But like almost everything in the world of medicine, the vaccine is not “perfect.” It comes with side effects and is not 100 percent effective, so there is still a small chance that you will catch coronavirus if you are exposed after receiving the vaccine. Also, most of us don’t know the science of how it works, and it’s hard to trust something we don’t fully understand.
Still, we’ve given you six good reasons why you should get it once it’s available, even if you don’t think you’re at high risk of getting seriously ill from COVID.
How does the vaccine work?
The new coronavirus has crown-shaped spikes on its surface, called spike proteins. When those spikes adhere to cells in your body, you become infected with COVID-19.
The goal of the vaccine is to familiarize your body with these spike proteins, so that if they do invade, your body knows exactly how to defend itself against them. That is, your body will know how to prevent spikes from hooking onto cells.
Two vaccines, those from Moderna and Pfizer, do not contain any part of the actual coronavirus. Instead, they are made with messenger RNA (mRNA), a genetic material that tells your body how to make copies of the spike protein. Your body then recognizes the protein and produces an immune response directed against it. Think of it as an email to your body alerting it to danger and explaining exactly how to avoid it.
This technology is not new. In fact, it has been around and used safely against other diseases for over 30 years.
The third vaccine, produced by Johnson & Johnson, uses an adenovirus (a virus that normally causes common colds, but has been inactivated so it cannot make you sick) to deliver the model of the COVID-19 spike protein. Since this adenovirus was already used in the company’s Ebola vaccine, it also has decades of safety and monitoring behind it.
What about the side effects?
It is true that you can have a severe allergic reaction (called ” anaphylaxis “) after vaccination, but this is extremely rare, with fewer than five cases per million doses of Pfizer vaccine administered and fewer than three cases per million doses of Moderna. .
This type of reaction usually occurs within the first 15 to 30 minutes after you receive the injection, when you are still being watched, and medical staff can immediately administer medications to treat it. Nobody wants to go through that, of course. But the risk pales in comparison to the risk of death or disability from the virus itself.
Don’t forget the fact that the real virus is much more dangerous than this vaccine. Healthy people are now living on lung transplants, dialysis, and blood thinners for life as a result of their COVID-19 infection. These side effects of the virus are all permanent and irreversible. By getting the vaccine, you are actually making your entire environment safer.
Why should you get vaccinated against COVID-19?
It has been shown that the three available vaccines prevent death by 100 percent, so if you get one, you’re practically guaranteed that will not die because of the s virus.
But more importantly, you can help save the lives of those around you.
Coronavirus is an incredibly contagious disease. If the vaccine prevents you from getting it, you can’t spread it to other people. And although without the vaccine you could get sick with just a mild case, you could infect another person who ends up dying from the virus.
Prevents hospitalization
If they offer you any of the three vaccines, you should take the opportunity.
Although the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been criticized for being less effective than the other two, it is actually not true: the J&J vaccine was 100 percent effective in trials when it came to preventing hospitalization and 85 percent effective at prevention. of serious diseases.
Although the Pfizer vaccine is more effective than J & J’s in preventing symptomatic illness (94 percent after the second injection, compared with 72 percent, respectively), it was equally effective in trials at preventing both hospitalization and illness. serious diseases.
The Moderna vaccine was about 94 percent effective after two doses in preventing symptomatic illness and 89 percent effective against hospitalization.
It seems to slow the spread of COVID-19
We’re not 100 percent sure it will prevent the spread of COVID, but that seems highly likely based on the data we have.
Johnson & Johnson has published data suggesting that its vaccine can prevent asymptomatic spread in 72 percent of cases. Logically, it makes sense because if you are less likely to get COVID-19 from the vaccine, the less likely you are to spread it.
This is one of the reasons why experts recently released new guidelines saying that if you’ve been vaccinated, you don’t need to self-quarantine if you’re exposed to someone who has the virus.
Reduces the chances of new variants emerging
The more injections we can get, the less chance we have of the virus spreading and ultimately becoming more dangerous strains.
We want to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating everyone, not making people sick and possibly even dying from the disease. Also, the more sprouts we have, the more difficult it will be to trace contact and slow down the spread.
The good news is that all three vaccines appear to work reasonably well against the currently circulating variants, including B.1.1.7 (originally detected in the UK) and B.1.351 (originally detected in South Africa).
But the virus is perfectly capable of transforming itself into a more dangerous strain. The more people the virus infects, the more chance it has of mutating into a strain against which the vaccine is not effective. That could mean more illness, more death, and more time living in fear.
That is why the faster we vaccinate people, the less chance there is that the vaccine will become ineffective.
We can stop wearing masks and social distancing
We need to vaccinate at least 70 to 80 percent of the population so that infection rates are so low that transmission is also extremely low. When this happens, we can begin to move back to normal, and that eventually includes not wearing a mask or continuing with social distance.
It would also mean a quiet return to school and the possibility of restaurants and other venues operating at full capacity again.
But in the meantime, it is important that you continue to wear a mask and keep your distance, even if you have been vaccinated, to stop the spread of the virus as much as possible.
