The Covid Vaccine
The year is nearly coming to a close and I think most of us will be happy to put this year behind us with the COVID-19 global pandemic and great uncertainties it has brought to us.
It’s been a hard year full of tough decisions, changes to our freedoms and running out of necessities in shops.
I had to pinch myself several times and wondered if I had time travelled and had woken up in my Kenya.
For someone who grew up in Kenya, we often used to get shortages of milk, vegetables when there was a drought, sometimes sugar too, due to poor crop yield again related to drought – all things I never thought I would see in the UK.
Three words have been used throughout the last few months – Hands, Face, Space – all of which mean different things to different people.
There was a lack of understanding and fear as why people could not socialise and it has led to severe mental health problems which I am sure will have further consequences in the years to come.
And something as simple as walking down the street, had to be done with such precision and planning.
I once remember walking down the street with a very small pathway and this lady was coming down with her dog, I had to walk all the way round instead of cutting through.
Later in the year came the compulsory wearing of masks - never in a million years would I have imagined going into a bank counter with a mask and asking for money!
My role as an essential key worker and working in both private practice and the NHS means that I have been working throughout the lockdown period.
I actually contracted COVID during the first lockdown. I had very mild symptoms and although, I isolated for 14 days, my husband did not believe that I had it until I had the antibody test which indicated that I have had the virus at some point.
It was a mild version where I lost my taste buds and sense of smell. I had a severe sore throat and was achy and extremely fatigued, but luckily, I recovered. However, it has left me with this residual tiredness also known as post-viral fatigue.
As the months progressed, it seemed we were all too interested in the ‘R’ number - the reproduction number, which is the average number of secondary infections produced by a single infected person. It is a way of rating coronavirus or any disease's ability to spread.
The drop in R number in the summer led to changes in lockdown status, with the confusing advice to both “go out” and “stay at home”.
Now, we have the complexity of a tiered system, which changes on a daily basis.
I will admit, that I do have a frustration in all of this and it’s down to the different views on how serious the virus is.
It’s easy in the modern world to get your data from different sources, and it’s much harder to make sure those sources are complete and evidenced based.
I hear stories of people travelling during lockdown, visiting different places and seeing people outside of their bubble.
When I hear such things, I want to shout from the roof tops and other times, I am often lost for words. I almost want to tell them they need to come to into the hospital or have a look at ICU wards or the post-mortem reports/pictures before they feel they need to move around.
The thing is this year, we have all been tested and we are all very fed-up to with the restrictions, but we all have to do our bit! If we don’t, we will continue to have further restrictions.
To add to this, there is a lot of conversation around vaccination and some scaremongering about being injected with chemicals or microchips.
But now, we do have a vaccine - two in fact; one from Pfizer BioNTech and one from Oxford Astrazeneca. Both of which offer us hope of moving back to a place or normality in the near future.
The vaccines have brought with them a whole host of questions:
How does a vaccine work?
Why do we need a vaccine?
Why has it appeared so quickly?
Will it work?
Are there side effects?
Will I have the vaccine?
These questions and others are being asked by patients. Not just to me, but also to my colleagues. So, this is why I have written this post. To answer some of those questions.
But before I dive into that, this is what a Covid-19 virus looks like.
Why do we need a vaccine?
It is worth remembering that a large majority of people have never experienced a pandemic. The last one was over 100 years ago – The Spanish Flu, which still feels a bit too close.
To date, we’ve not had a cure for COVID-19. There are a few medications on the market that aid patients who are suffering from COVID-19 Virus but there does not appear to be a cure.
As the Centres of Disease Control (CDC) have pointed out, in order to end the global pandemic and return our lives to something approaching normal, vaccination is important.
If we look at our history, vaccines have eradicated so many diseases and have kept us healthy. For example: such as small pox, mumps, rubella, polio, and measles. The list goes on. The first person to invent a vaccine was over 200 years ago – vaccines’ have helped us for a long time. The reason we don’t see the widespread diseases mentioned above is because enough people in the world received vaccinations.
Hence, the best way forward is to get a vaccine to eradicate the COVID-19 and that is when the vaccination programme was initiated with all the global scientists (those who are leaders in their fields) putting their heads together to come up with a vaccine.
So how does a vaccine work?
Now that’s a big subject, and best answered by having a read of this summary https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vpd-vac-basics.html
Are there are any side effects?
Out of this vaccine, one in 10 people had minor side effects like minor flu. All these reactions were minor and temporary and all recovered within a week.
Reactions such as:
· Localised pain at the injection site, - like with travel vaccines.
· Fatigue,
· Headaches
· Aches and pain
· Minor chills
All things that you can get from other vaccines.
To give you an idea of the scope of the trials and how they get the data, check out this flow chart.
Why has the vaccine appeared so quickly?
Like COVID-19, the vaccine is new, and new things are scary. There are still a lot of unknowns about the vaccine, so it is natural to have doubts, but that does mean they are an anti-vaxxer?
I have heard this over and over. But having done my research, I do not feel that corners have been cut. Instead, the speed of this vaccine is due to a combination of luck, good planning, and an intense focus on the creating a vaccine between the scientists and research teams from all around the world, and with the manufacturers, and regulators. It appears that huge amounts of money poured in, from various countries’ governments and from other funding bodies and donors.
There is a higher risk if you do not have the vaccine than to have the virus.
Think of it like this:
If you washed your car alone it may take you an hour, but if 20 of your friends help it will take much less time.
Also, if they have experience of washing cars already, then it makes the task much more familiar.
How is the vaccine given?
This depends on the particular vaccine, but it appears that there are two does given with a time interval between the two.
There’s no real evidence of how long immunity will last, but at this stage there is a suggestion that it will offer at least 6 months, however this is being investigated further.
It is hoped if 60-70% of the population in the UK are immunised it will create ‘Herd Immunity’ because it protects you and it protects others, the virus can be eradicated. Remember the virus is not airborne only passed from one living cell to another – one human to another.
Once you have received the vaccine it is vital to remember to still maintain social distance as well as washing your hands and wearing a mask until such time the government changes the guidelines as not everybody has been vaccinated as yet. Plus the clinical trial has proved that the vaccine protects the individual but what we don’t know if you can still be a carrier and pass the virus on even though you might have been vaccinated. Hence, adhere to government guidelines until stated otherwise.
I hope this gives you and your family members an overview to make an informed decision on whether to take the vaccine or not. If you are still not sure, please speak to your GP.
As for me, I have looked through all the papers and I am going to have the vaccine when I am offered it, even though I have had COVID-19 previously, as research has shown that it will offer me further immunity.
And here’s a few more bits and pieces for you to get stuck into for more information.
References or further reading
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-talk-to-someone-who-doesnt-want-the-covid-19-vac-1845750652
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaccine-genocide-idUSKBN28S2F5
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Pfizer-BioNTech.html
https://www.tiktok.com/@anna.blakney