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As the number of COVID-19 cases rises and vaccination rates remain largely stable, there is a new push to vaccinate those who remain hesitant.
President Joe Biden passed sweeping federal vaccine requirements earlier this month, while the number of people 12 and older in Michigan who have received at least one injection hangs at around 61 %.
Since the start of this month, the number of eligible people vaccinated in Michigan has increased by about 1.5%.
Meanwhile, officials are worried about the disease trends. Hospitalizations are increasing. The health care system, overwhelmed by staff shortages, feels strained as fall and winter approach.
The doctors here are answering a few lingering and oft-repeated questions about vaccines.
Have these vaccines been developed too quickly and are they safe?
It’s a common question, medical professionals have said.
There were good reasons to accelerate vaccine development, said Dr. Elizabeth Lloyd, pediatric infectious disease expert at the CS Mott Children’s Hospital of Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor. “So the fact that we were able to manufacture these vaccines quickly should not be of concern. “
Scientists already knew a lot about coronaviruses. There are several that circulate regularly and usually cause mild cold-like symptoms, Lloyd said in a live question-and-answer session hosted by Michigan Medicine last week. There is also the original Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which appeared in China in 2003 and is closely linked to the current coronavirus, and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Both have high death rates, prompting exploration of a vaccine.
“So we were able to build on that research… We were able to really accelerate because we already knew a lot about coronavirus vaccines. “
The world is in a state of emergency, and this has inspired unprecedented cooperation and information sharing, she said.
While speed was new, the steps taken were not. The vaccines have gone through all the required safety checks, Lloyd said.
And the security oversight didn’t end there; it continues. About 181 million people in the United States and 4.9 million people in Michigan are now fully vaccinated.
The vaccination effort started about 10 months ago.
“I think if you look at the history of vaccination, there has probably been no vaccine that has been more scrutinized and under more microscope than vaccines for COVID-19”, Dr. Liam Sullivan, infectious disease specialist at Spectrum Health, based in Grand Rapids, said earlier this month.
Most of the usual side effects are what is typical of any vaccine – arm pain, mild fever, body aches or fatigue, he said.
Serious and rare side effects have been associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, given far fewer times in Michigan than the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. These include thrombosis, when blood clots block veins or arteries, and thrombocytopenia syndrome, a condition characterized by a low platelet count. However, the people most likely to experience such side effects have been identified and are away from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Sullivan said.
“I think the safety profile of these vaccines has been excellent from the start and they continue to be so in the future,” Sullivan said.
But what about long term side effects?
Biologically, it doesn’t make sense for side effects from a vaccine to appear more than about six weeks after vaccination, Lloyd said.
“We know historically from all the other vaccines we use that if you’re going to have some kind of reaction or side effect, it’s going to happen in that first kind of period of weeks after your vaccine,” he said. she declared.
“If there was to be a side effect, we would generally have seen it by now. “
What is mRNA and how does it work?
This is a type of genetic material included in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. It is feared that this has an impact on human DNA. This is not the case, Lloyd said. “It doesn’t even go into the area where our DNA is in the cell. He kind of stays on the outside.
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines instruct cells to make a harmless piece of what’s called the spike protein, found on the surface of the COVID-causing coronavirus.
The cells then display the piece of protein on its surface. The immune system recognizes that it has no place and begins to develop a response and make antibodies, according to the CDC.
Lloyd put it this way: The body uses the machinery of the cell to make copies of the coronavirus spike protein, and the immune system responds to this protein. If a person has been exposed to the coronavirus, then the body recognizes it and attacks them.
Once the body uses mRNA to make these proteins, the mRNA is broken down within days. “It has no impact on human DNA,” she said.
Does the vaccine work? Look at the breakthrough cases.
No vaccine is perfect, and COVID-19 vaccines were never designed or expected to prevent all infections.
“In a lot of ways, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It prevents people from going from mild illness to severe illness, ”said Dr Russell Lampen, infectious disease specialist at Spectrum Health.
Vaccines keep people from going to the hospital, which is the main goal, he said.
Breakthrough infections remain rare and serious illnesses in vaccinees are even rarer, Lampen said.
About 8% of people hospitalized for COVID-19 from mid-January to early September have been fully vaccinated. About 6% of the deaths were in people who were fully vaccinated, according to the latest COVID data and modeling update from Michigan.
The number of breakthrough cases increased with the number of people vaccinated and as the delta variant became dominant.
Vaccinated people, when infected, are able to clear the measurable virus in their nose and throat faster than those who are not vaccinated, Lampen said. “Making them less contagious to those around them in their homes and less contagious to people in their community.” “
Do healthy people need to be vaccinated?
Seniors and people with medical conditions are more likely to develop serious complications associated with COVID-19, so some younger, healthier people seem to believe they are immune or, in some way, protected against COVID-19, Lampen said.
However, younger people are entering hospitals as the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread. “We see people who really don’t have significant health issues coming in with serious illness. Now, well, it’s less common than what we see in older people, it’s not a complete anomaly, and so no one is really immune from some of the complications.
There is also a risk of long-term symptoms. People with mild COVID-19 can still develop persistent problems, such as fatigue, difficulty breathing, chest or stomach pain, headaches and rapidly pounding or pounding heart, mood swings, and changes in mood. smell or taste, according to the CDC.
Learn more about MLive:
Michigan reports 5,616 new coronavirus cases, 68 deaths on Thursday, September 16 and Friday, September 17
FDA advisers refuse to recommend vaccine booster to general public
Legal precedents appear to support national Biden coronavirus vaccine order, legal experts say
What we know about the Mu variant and why the Delta remains the biggest COVID-19 threat
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