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COVID-19 has changed all of our lives, but with vaccine deployments across the country, there is finally an end in sight… but only if enough people get vaccinated. So when your friend / aunt / coworker tells you they are considering do not get the vaccine, you are understandably concerned – for them and for the general population. Your action plan? Know the facts. We spoke to the experts about who shouldn’t get the vaccine (note: this is a very small group of people) and how to address the concerns of those who are skeptical about it.
Note: The information below is for the two COVID-19 vaccines currently available to Americans and developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Who should definitely NOT get the vaccine
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Those under 16. “At this time, the available vaccines are not approved for use in people under 18 for Moderna and under 16 for Pfizer because an adequate number of younger participants have not been included in the vaccine. safety testing, ”Elroy Vojdani, MD, IFMCP, tells us. “That could change as the two companies are currently studying the effects of the vaccine in adolescents.” But until we know more, young people under the age of 16 should not get the vaccine.
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People who are allergic to any of the ingredients in the vaccine. According to the CDC, anyone who has had an immediate allergic reaction – even if it was not serious – to an ingredient in one of the two available COVID-19 vaccines should not be vaccinated.
Who should talk to their doctor before getting vaccinated
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People with autoimmune diseases. “There is no short-term indication that the vaccine will increase autoimmunity, but we will have much larger data sets on this in the coming months,” says Dr Vojdani. In the meantime, patients with autoimmune disease should have a discussion with their doctor about whether the vaccine is the right choice for them. “In general, in this group, I tend to make the vaccine a much better option than the infection itself,” he adds.
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Those who have had an allergic reaction to other vaccines or injectable therapies. According to the CDC, if you’ve had an immediate allergic reaction – even if it wasn’t serious – to a vaccine or injectable treatment for another illness, you should ask your doctor if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. . (Note: the CDC recommends that people with a history of severe allergic reactions do not related to vaccines or injectable drugs – such as food, animal, venom, environmental or latex allergies –make to get vaccinated.)
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Pregnant women. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says the vaccine should not be withheld from people who are breastfeeding or pregnant. The ACOG also states that the vaccine is not believed to cause infertility, miscarriage, harm to the newborn, or harm to pregnant women. But since vaccines have not been studied in pregnant people during clinical trials, there is little safety data available to work with.
Wait, should pregnant women get vaccinated or not?
“Getting the COVID vaccine while pregnant or breastfeeding is a personal decision,” says Nicole Calloway Rankins, MD, MPH, an OB / GYN board certified and host of the Everything about pregnancy and birth Podcast. “There is very limited data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. When considering getting vaccinated while pregnant or breastfeeding, it’s important to ask your healthcare professional in the context of your own risk, ”she tells us.
For example, if you have underlying health conditions that increase your risk of having a more severe form of COVID-19 (such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or lung disease), you might be more prone to get vaccinated during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Likewise, if you work in a higher risk healthcare environment such as a nursing home or hospital.
“Remember there are risks anyway. With the vaccine, you accept the risks of side effects from the vaccine, which so far we know are minimal. Without the vaccine, you accept the risks of contracting COVID, which we know can be devastating. “
Bottom Line: If you’re pregnant, talk to your doctor so you can assess the risks and decide if the vaccine is right for you.
My neighbor says he has had COVID-19 before, does that mean he doesn’t need the vaccine?
The CDC recommends that even those who have had COVID-19 get vaccinated. “The reason is that the immunity to infection is somewhat variable and it is very difficult to make an individual assessment of it as a deciding factor in whether one should catch it or not,” explains the Dr Vojdani. “Their response to this was to recommend vaccination to make sure they have the level of immunity shown in Phase 3 studies of the vaccine manufacturers. With COVID representing such a massive global health crisis, I understand that point of view.
My friend thinks the vaccine is linked to infertility. What should I tell him?
Short answer: it is not.
Long answer: “An important protein for the proper functioning of the placenta, syncytin-1, is somewhat similar to the spike protein formed when receiving the mRNA vaccine,” says Dr. Rankins. “A false theory has circulated that the antibodies formed against the spike protein resulting from the vaccine would recognize and block syncytin-1, and thus interfere with the functioning of the placenta. The two share a few amino acids, but they are not similar enough for the antibodies formed as a result of the vaccine to recognize and block syncytin-1. In other words, there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility.
Why are some in the black community so skeptical of the vaccine?
According to the results of a Pew Research Center poll released in December, only 42% of black Americans said they would consider getting the vaccine, compared to 63% of Hispanics and 61% of white adults who would. And yes, this skepticism makes perfect sense.
Some historical context: America has a history of medical racism. The government-backed Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which began in 1932 and recruited 600 black men, including 399 with syphilis, is one of the most infamous examples. These participants were led to believe that they were receiving free medical care, but were simply observed for research purposes. Researchers provided no effective care for their disease (not even after penicillin was found to cure syphilis in 1947) and as such, the men experienced serious health problems and death as a result. The study did not end until it was exposed to the press in 1972.
And this is just one example of medical racism. There are many other examples of health inequity for people of color, including lower life expectancy, higher blood pressure, and pressures on mental health. Racism also exists in health care (blacks are less likely to receive appropriate pain relievers and experience disproportionately high death rates from pregnancy or childbirth, for example).
But what does this mean for the COVID-19 vaccine?
“As a black woman, I also share a lingering distrust of the health care system because of the way the health care system has treated us, both historically and now,” says Dr. Rankins. “However, the science and the data are strong and suggest that the vaccine is effective and safe for the vast majority of people. In contrast, we do know that COVID can kill otherwise healthy people and can have devastating long-term effects that we are only now beginning to understand, ”she adds.
Here’s another factor to consider: COVID-19 affects black people and other people of color more severely. CDC data shows that more than half of COVID-19 cases in the United States are blacks and Latinxes.
For Dr. Rankins, that was the deciding factor. “I have received the vaccine and I hope most people will get it too.”
At the end of the line
It is not known exactly how many Americans would need to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity” (that is, the level at which the virus will no longer be able to spread in the population). But Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently said the number is expected to be between 75 and 85 percent. It’s a lot. So if you can get the vaccine, you should.
“It’s understandable to be skeptical about something relatively new, but it’s also important to put emotions aside and look at the objective evidence,” says Dr Vojani. “Evidence indicates that the vaccine causes a massive decrease in the development of COVID-19 symptoms in inoculated people and prevents hospitalization and death. So far, the short-term side effects appear to be relatively mild and manageable, especially compared to COVID-19 itself, and no autoimmune complications have been observed so far. This is contrary to the infection which causes an alarming rate of chronic fatigue and post-infectious autoimmune disease.
If someone tells you that they don’t want to be vaccinated and that they are not in the disqualified groups mentioned above, you can give them the facts and urge them to speak to their primary care provider. You can also pass on these words from Dr Rankins: “This disease is devastating, and these vaccines will help stop it, but only if enough of us get it.”
RELATED: Your Ultimate Guide to Self-Care During COVID-19
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