BY ETHAN SEMLER
STAFF WRITER
As of right now, there have been over 20.5 million COVID vaccines administered in the United States, but the majority of people still need it. Many may still be confused about a lot of different aspects of the vaccine. Hopefully this article can help cure some confusion.
Many people have been asking: can I get sick with COVID because of the vaccine? The answer to that question: no! The COVID vaccine doesn’t contain a living virus, so that means there’s no way that the vaccine could infect you with the virus. Like any vaccine or medication, there are some possible side effects, but all of them are minor and not worth worrying about (swelling, redness, fever, tiredness, etc).
There are currently two types of COVID vaccines that have been approved by the FDA. The names of which being: The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. Both are given in two shots either twenty-one days apart (Pfizer-BioNTech) or twenty-eight days apart (Moderna). Both vaccines are a type of vaccine that are called mRNA vaccines, which are a newer type of vaccine meant for infectious diseases. A typical vaccine uses a weak or inactive virus or germ to build immunity in our bodies. An mRNA vaccine, however, doesn’t do that. According to the CDC, “They teach our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies. That immune response, which produces antibodies, is what protects us from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.”
The virus has to be stored at extremely low temperatures, and this has led to a very unexpected helper in the Covid vaccine team: Dippin’ Dots! The CDC reached out to Dippin’ Dots to ask them about their chest freezers that can range from -40°F to -122°F. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has to be stored at -94°F, and the Moderna vaccine must be kept at -4°F. As of January 10th, Dippin’ Dots had sold two of their freezers to help store the vaccines.
If you know a healthcare worker or a long-term care facility resident, then you might actually know someone who’s already received the vaccine. Currently, those are the two groups getting the vaccine. We don’t have unlimited vaccines to pass out right now, so the CDC has made an order for who should receive the vaccine first, second, third, etc. After healthcare workers and long-term care facility residents, the vaccine will be given to people seventy-five and older and frontline essential workers in phase 1b of the vaccine distribution. Phase 1c will then be people 65-74, people 16-64 with underlying medical conditions, and other essential workers.
Hopefully this article has taught you a bit more about vaccines for COVID, and hopefully this marks the beginning of the end of the pandemic that we’ve all been living through this past year.
All information, other than information surrounding the Dippin’ Dots company has come directly from the CDC.
Sources:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Pfizer-BioNTech.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Moderna.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/expect/after.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety.html