Vaccines

While no vaccine is 100% effective, the COVID-19 vaccines will markedly reduce your risk of getting sick with COVID-19 and spreading it to your loved ones. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were found to be more than 90% effective in clinical trials. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was found to be 66% effective in preventing COVID-19 disease. Most importantly, all vaccines have proved to be 100% effective in preventing severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots, with three (Pfizer) and four (Moderna) weeks between each shot. Johnson & Johnson is a single dose. For all vaccines, maximum protection occurs two weeks after the second shot. At this time, we don’t know how long the vaccine will protect us. This vaccine may be like the annual flu vaccine, where we may need to have vaccine shots for COVID-19 on a regular basis. More research is needed to know this and it also depends if the virus changes over the coming months to years. Even when people receive the vaccine they will not be immediately protected and will need to continue wearing masks, social distancing and practicing frequent hand hygiene.

Vaccines stimulate your body to produce substances called antibodies to “fight” viruses with the goal of preventing infections.

Some COVID-19 vaccines, such as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, are mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines, which contain material from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. According to the CDC, this material gives our cells instructions for how to make a harmless protein that is unique to the virus. This protein cannot build a virus or cause infection. After our cells make copies of the protein, the mRNA is quickly eliminated. Our body recognizes that the protein should not be there and builds a response that will remember how to fight the virus that causes COVID-19 if we are infected in the future. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not an mRNA vaccine, but a viral vector vaccine. It uses a modified version of a different (vector) virus to teach our bodies to make the harmless protein and build antibodies.

It's important to remember that the COVID-19 vaccines cannot give you COVID-19. The goal is to give your body the tools to fight it effectively if you are infected, and/or to prevent you from getting it at all.

Safety is the most important requirement for the vaccine and is assessed in trials by independent experts.

The COVID-19 vaccines approved for an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), have NOT skipped steps in the safety evaluation process. The FDA issues an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for vaccines only after they have passed all three phases of clinical trials and have been reviewed by an independent body of experts who review the data for safety and efficacy. Only vaccines that have been issued an EUA are available to the public.

The COVID-19 vaccines currently being tested in clinical trials can cause short-term discomfort (such as headache, muscle pains, fatigue, chills, fever and pain at injection site) in some of the people who receive them. This is the effect of your body developing immunity. Clinical trial participants who experienced these symptoms, reported that the discomfort went away after a day, sometimes sooner. When you receive the second dose of the vaccine (when required), the discomfort can be more pronounced. This is a normal reaction.

If you are receiving a two-dose vaccine, such as Pfizer or Moderna, it is very important that you receive the second dose as close to the recommended timeframe for the vaccine to be effective. This is important, even if you experience these normal side effects after the first dose of the vaccine.

Discomfort after the vaccine does not mean that the vaccine has given you COVID-19. Rather, this means that the vaccine is causing your body’s immune system to react and create antibodies to fight off the virus. If you feel some discomfort, then the vaccine is doing its job.

In some cases, a person may already be infected with COVID-19 when they get the vaccine, but are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. If they later have symptoms of COVID-19 or test positive for it, it does not mean they contracted COVID-19 from the vaccine.

Some of the COVID-19 vaccines, including the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, require two doses to be effective, given 3-4 weeks apart. This is to make sure your body has enough antibodies to “fight” COVID-19. Getting two doses within 3-4 weeks has been shown to be safe and there are other vaccines we have been using for years that require multiple doses without causing harm.

If you are receiving a two-dose vaccine, you must receive both doses from the same manufacturer in order for it to be effective. There is no data that shows efficacy after receiving only the first dose of a two-dose vaccine. It’s crucial that you receive both doses. All recipients of the vaccine will receive a COVID-19 Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Fact Sheet and a COVID-19 vaccination card with date of second dose clearly identified. Every vaccinated individual will be recorded into his or her state registry system within 24 hours.

The COVID-19 vaccine may not be given simultaneously with another vaccine, such as the flu vaccine. Two recognized medical organizations (Society for Maternal and Fetal Medicine, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology) recommend that the vaccine not be withheld from pregnant and breastfeeding women, but individuals should always speak to their physician prior to receiving the vaccine.

The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine uses fetal cells in the manufacturing process. Even though fetal cells are used to grow the vaccine virus, the vaccine does not contain these cells or pieces of DNA. The mRNA vaccines (those by Pfizer and Moderna) do not use fetal cells to produce or manufacture the vaccine.

ProMedica clinics to date have received all COVID 19 vaccine brands from the state. Please note due to short notification of which manufacturer we will be receiving, we cannot guarantee the vaccine brand being administered at each site until the day of the clinic.

Yes, even if you have had COVID-19, it is safe to get the vaccine as long as you have recovered (10 days have passed since symptoms started and you are improving). This can provide additional protection without causing any harm. If you have had a test that shows you have COVID-19 antibodies, you should still get the vaccine. It is safe and can increase your protection form future COVID-19 infections.

Wearing a mask will still be required in many places, such as healthcare settings. Even after you receive your vaccine, most of the people around you have not. We know the vaccine helps protect the vaccinated person against COVID-19. However, it still may be possible for the vaccinated person to transmit the disease to others, especially when most people will still be at risk for getting COVID-19. Wearing a mask, social distancing, and practicing hand hygiene protects those who have not been vaccinated.

The flu vaccine is a good example of how vaccines can help prevent disease. It is more important this year than ever to get your flu shot so you can decrease your risk of getting the flu. Remember, you can be infected with both the flu and COVID-19 at the same time. The flu shot also reduces the spread of flu to others. This will help decrease the burden on healthcare workers who are caring for those with COVID-19.