How safe is the COVID 19 vaccine?
- Vaccines prevent diseases that can be dangerous, or even deadly. They work with your body’s natural defenses to safely develop protection from disease.
- A vaccine helps your immune system to produce antibodies, just like it would if you were exposed to the disease. After getting vaccinated, you have protection from that disease, without having to get the disease first.
- This is what makes vaccines such powerful medicine. Unlike most medicines, which treat or cure diseases, vaccines prevent them.
- Vaccines train your immune system using a harmless form of the virus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.
- Vaccines stimulate an immune response without causing illness.
- Each type of vaccine for COVID-19 works differently to introduce antigens, which are unique features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to your body.
- The antigen triggers a specific immune response and this response builds immune memory, so your body can fight off SARS-CoV-2 in the future.
How is it safe if it happened so fast?
- We already had helpful information about coronaviruses, so we weren’t starting from scratch.
- The United States and other governments invested a lot of money to support vaccine companies with their work.
- A lot of people participated in clinical trials and we didn’t need to spend time finding volunteers.
- Manufacturing happened at the same time as safety studies, so vaccines were ready to be distributed once they were approved.
Vaccines
- no vaccine is 100% effective against preventing COVID-19.
- Getting COVID while fully vaccinated does not give the vaccine a bad name!
- Despite being vaccinated, there is always a small chance that one could still get infected as has happened to me.
- Despite being vaccinated, there is also always a small chance that one can still transmit COVID to someone else – again – as has happened to me.
- However – the real benefit and protection of the vaccine come in preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
Which vaccine should I take?
- Take the first one offered to you.
- Both vaccines do the same thing.
- Pfizer vaccine more protective
- Pfizer – 56 days from the first dose until fully vaccinated
- J&J – 14 days
What about people who have died after taking the vaccine?
- Just because there is a temporal (time) association with the vaccine, does not mean a causal association.
- USA:
- 369 million doses (up till 30th August)
- 7,218 reports of deaths (0,0020%)
- No causal link found
What about people who have died after taking the vaccine?
- Just because there is a temporal (time) association with the vaccine, does not mean a causal association.
- SA:
- 7 million doses (between 17th May and 31st July)
- 53 reported deaths (0,0007%)
- 6 died of COVID
- 5 – insufficient information
- Remaining all coincidental to the vaccine (existing illness before taking the vaccine)
- No link found to the vaccine
What about blood clots?
- Few cases identified after J&J
- More common in women 18-59 years, within 2 weeks of the vaccine
- The risk of clots due to COVID-19 infection is 8 to 10 times higher than the risk of clots from the vaccine
Booster doses
- This does not mean the vaccines are not working
- Protection after vaccination may decrease over time (waning immunity)
- Because of new variants, we may have reduced protection against mild and moderate disease.
- Booster dose will maintain protection
5 reasons to take the Vaccine
- It works – safe and effective
- It protects –
- You – from serious illness, hospitalization, and death
- Your family and loved ones
- You need it – comorbidities
- Obesity, HT, Diabetes
- Herd immunity
- Return to normal
- It’s free
- It’s the right thing to do!
