Should we take the Covid vaccine?
I'm not an anti-vaxer is any sense, but this new vaccine seems kinda scary. Will it be safe and properly tested?
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Answers ( 1 )
Yes, take the vaccine as soon as you are able.
I understand your fear, especially if you have been exposed to those who are ideologically irrational and prone to downplay CoVID, itself, and, especially, the vaccines which have resulted from some of the most intense research done in our history. Folks who believe such things believe delsuions and irrational conspiracies, and use pseudoscience- articles that use scientific sounding jargon and dot-dot-dot connections to conclusions, but which are not based on the Gold Standard of scientific research: Peer-reviewed studies (double-blind is the very best, along with longitudinal, but given the immensity of the emergency facing us, there's not a lot of time right now for that, which is why peer-review becomes important) If you are not provided with peer-reviewed studies, you are likely being provided with conspiracy-based pseudoscience. Don't be fooled. (Peer-review takes time. Basically, a study is published and then other scientists replicate the study to see if the results are the same, often trying to falsify it- challenge its conclusions. Right now, there are LOTS of peer-reviews going on all over the planet- the majority of the biological sciences- especially mendical sciences- are busy research and re-researching and re-re-researching to make sure we have this right).
These vaccines have a lot of research behind them; thankfully for us, the base research- using RNA materials as the vehicle- was done a decade or so ago, so most of these vaccines utilize RNA bits (genetic material) to "teach your immune system what to look for, and kill". There is no live virus. There is no dead virus. There's just some bits of genetic material- sort of like a piece of a blueprint to a building: You don't get the whole building; you don't even get photographs of the whole building; you only get a piece of the blueprint. And it turns out, according to tens of thousands of people now who took part in trials, that's all you need to teach your body's immune system to recognize and kill CoVID virus inside your body.
But-but-but! You can still get CoVID! Yes, that's true- because that's how vaccines work. ALL vaccines provide your body's immune system with information so that when a specific "germ" enters, it is seen as an intruder, and antibodies along with other immune system tools are manufactured to get rid of that intruder. Small pox works like this, polio works like this, pertussis works like this- they ALL work like this. It is possible you could be exposed to CoVID, become infected by CoVID, and even have a few symptoms of CoVID- like a mild case of flu lasting 24 to 48 hours- but, so far, those who are vaccinated are not being hospitalized, developing clots in their major organ systems, or dying of CoVID. And, so far, the rate of such infection appears very low.
This is also why most people react most strongly- have the most side-effects from- the second vaccine shot. At that time, your body's immune system is primed and ready- it knows exactly what to look for and how to kill it! so that, when the second innoculation is given, your body spots those bits of CoVID RNA and goes into full-throated screaming attack mode! You run a slight fever (one tool of your immune system- burn the bugger out) you have muscle aches (trick two- flood the body with white cells and antibodies- makes things a bit congested which translates to body aches) you may even have a runny nose (trick three- flood it out with snot! which, because your sinuses are stuffy, can result in headache) and you are tired- because your body is working very hard. And that is how you know you have succesfully built an immunity: You have slight effects of the infection which likely would have been far, far stronger had you become infected without your immune system having those blueprints.
These are scholarly articles and study findings; if you do not have a science background, they may just read like gobbeldegook, but if you look at abstracts and conclusions, you can see not only the efficacies, but the sheer numbers of participants in just these few studies. There are rounds and rounds of these trials- if you want to find them on your own, google "scholarly articles covid vaccine". You'll have a wealth of homework.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2035389
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/peer-reviewed-report-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-publishes
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S1473-3099(20)30773-8/fulltext
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/01/peer-reviewed-data-show-high-protection-leading-covid-vaccines
Lastly, yes, take the vaccine as soon as you are able; we need to build herd immunity- that doesn't mean no one will get CoVID ever again, it means there's enough of us with immunity that we can hide those who are susceptible" inside the larger group- the herd. There will be so many of us who the virus cannot infect easily, that it will die out over time- or, possibly, mutate to something else, entirely. That's something we cannot know. With the variants out there, it seems likely it will continue to circulate in variant forms for a few years- acting much like the yearly influenzas- but the more of us who are vaccinated, the more trouble it will find trying to survive in humans who can kill it- herd immunity- which we have never built without vaccines.
The voices who keep clamoring about a lack of safety and/or efficacy have their own ideology they are trying to infect others with- and the best immunization against that irrational misinformation is evidence: fact-based evidence. I have provided you with some, and told you how to find more: Scholarly articles on CoVID (SARS-CoV2) vaccines is how you will find the studies so that you are informed by science, not some whacked out conspiracy theory. If a nay-sayng voice offers you anything less than a scholarly article of fact-based science, politely refuse to allow them access to your rationality.