Discussing the COVID-19 Vaccine with Dean Augustine M.K. Choi and Dr. Roy Gulick
Now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use authorization, many states have begun administeringinjections to frontline healthcare workers and some of the country’s most vulnerable patients.
“We are truly experiencing history in the making,”saysAugustine M. K. Choi,MD, theStephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean, ֭Ƶ(WCM), andprovost for Medical Affairs, Cornell University.At WCM, Dean Choi adds, “Workersarealready gettingthevaccine,andthe general public will get it in the months and weeks to come.”
Dean ChoiandRoy Gulick,MD, MPH,chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases,recently discussed the vaccine, how it works,and its administrationin an. Here are thefive key takeaways from the webinar that you should know.
ThenewmRNA-based vaccines cannotgive youthe virus that causes COVID-19.
That’s because the injection only contains “a tiny sliver of the genes of the virus called RNA,” Dr. Gulick explains.“We’re not using all the genes from the virus….Soyou could not get it from receiving the vaccine.”
Then the vaccine is injected into the muscle of the upper arm,and“The muscle cells take up that RNA and use it as a template to make the spike protein of the Corona virus….ճthinking goes that if you ever come into contact with the real virus, your immune system is already primed to do it.”
These are effective vaccines.
When the FDA was advising drug companies on the design of the vaccines, they said they were looking for them to be about 50% effective.
“What we learned from the clinical trials is each of the vaccines is approximately 95% effective,” Dr. Gulick explains. “That’s as good as any other vaccine. We have the measles vaccine, for example, which is about 90% effective.”
Though the approved vaccines have not been studied in comparison with one another, “They both look like excellent vaccines,” Dr. Gulicksays.
The approved vaccines come in two doses.The first injection, Dr. Gulick says, “primes the immune system.”
That’s“somewhat helpful,’ he says,perhapsoffering patientsup to approximately 50% protection. “But to achieve that 95% protection, you really do need that second shot to make sure that the immune system is fully primed to make a response.”
ThetwoPfizer vaccine injections are separated by three weeks, and theModernainjections are given four weeks apart.
Therecan beside effects, and that’s a good thing.
Side effects are,“telling us is that the immune system is responding to the vaccine,” he says.“It’s already recognizing it as a foreign protein that needs to be dealt with.”
The most common side effects have beenlocal pain or soreness at the site of the injection.Though rare,some patients have experiencedredness or swelling at that siteand, somehaveexperienced fatigue, headache, ormuscle or joint aches.
We don’t yet haveallof the information about who should receive the vaccine.
Somegroups of peoplesimply have not yet been studied, Dr. Gulick says.
In addition to people who maybeallergic to a component of the injections,pregnant or breastfeeding women;children under the age of 16;thosewithcompromised immune systems, such as patients with cancer, transplanted organs, or uncontrolled HIV infectionshave not yet been included in clinical trials.
Dr. Gulick adds: “People really should have conversations with their own doctors before they receive the vaccine if they’re in those specific groups.”
Watch the full COVID-19 vaccine Q&A session below.