The Coronavirus Vaccines: What You Need To Know
The
Food and Drug Administration approved the first vaccine against SARS CoV-2, the
virus that causes COVID-19, by issuing an Emergency Use Authorization on Dec.
11.
When Will Vaccines
Be Available In Alabama?
The
first vaccines are likely to be available in Alabama the week of Dec. 14.Health care workers and residents of
long-term care facilities will be among the first to receive the vaccine.
How Does a Vaccine
Work?
When
germs, such as viruses, invade the body, they attack and multiply. This
invasion, called an infection, is what causes illness. The immune system uses
several tools to fight infection.The
first time the body encounters a germ or virus, it can take several days for
the body to make and use all the germ-fighting tools needed to fight the
infection. After the infection, the immune system remembers what it learned
about how to protect the body against that disease.Vaccines help develop immunity by imitating
an infection. Vaccines greatly reduce the risk of infection by working with the
body’s natural defenses to safely develop immunity to disease.
While
some vaccines, such as flu vaccines, use dead or deactivated virus to imitate
the infection, the vaccine approved for COVID-19 does not.It uses the body’s messenger RNA to teach the
immune system to recognize the SARSCoV-2 virus. A person cannot get COVID-19
from the vaccine.
How Effective Are
The Coronavirus Vaccines In Preventing COVID-19?
- The
Pfizer vaccine, the first one approved, is 95 percent effective; meaning only
five percent of those who got the vaccine during the clinical trials got
COVID-19.
- The
Moderna vaccine, coming soon, is 94.5 percent effective. Only 5.5 percent of
those in the clinical trial who received the vaccine became infected with
COVID-19.
- Both
vaccines involve taking two doses, 21 days after the first for Pfizer and 28
days after the first for Moderna. Taking the second dose of the vaccine is
essential for it to work.
By The Numbers
- 43,000
people took the Pfizer vaccine in the studies. The only significant side effect
was temporary fatigue and headache.
Vaccine Success
- Smallpox,
which killed millions (often 30 percent of those who caught it) was completely
eliminated by a vaccine in 1977.
- A
vaccine developed in 1963 has made measles, once commonplace, extremely rare.
More Information
and Resources from the CDC:
Facts
about COVID-19 Vaccines
When
Vaccine is Limited, Who Gets Vaccinated First?
Frequently
Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccination