Coronavirus Vaccination

Think of a vaccine as a way for your immune system to practice for a virus. Vaccines give the body a preview of one or more key features of a virus before you get the actual virus. The immune system then develops a “memory” of how to react and stop the virus once you are exposed to it.

The vaccine allows the immune system to produce antibodies that latch onto the spike protein that makes coronaviruses unique. (Coronaviruses got their name because the viruses have protein spikes that look like a crown.). This allows the immune system to quickly recognize the actual coronaviruses and interfere with its ability to multiply. The idea is to stop SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from getting into cells, replicating itself and making a person sick.

COVID-19 vaccines are being tested in large clinical trials to assess their safety. No vaccine will receive approval to be used outside of a clinical trial unless at least two months have gone by after the final shot in order to monitor for safety concerns. It may take more time, and more people getting vaccinated before we learn about extremely rare side effects. That is why safety monitoring will continue even after it is approved for use, like all other vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) each have an independent group of experts that review all the safety data as it comes in and provide regular safety updates. If a safety issue is detected, immediate action will take place to determine if the issue is related to the COVID-19 vaccine and determine the best course of action. To date there have been no serious safety concerns reported with either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccines in people who have participated in the clinical trials.

Under normal circumstances, from pre-clinical testing to distribution, a vaccine takes roughly 72 months, or six years, to develop. Under the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed (OWS), the timeline to develop a COVID-19 vaccine has been reduced to only 14 months. 

According to the CDC, OWS provided the resources and funding needed from the federal government to create highly coordinated efforts, which accelerate development while maintaining standards for safety and efficacy.

Specifically, clinical protocols that show the safety and efficacy of the vaccine are aligned, which allows the vaccine trials to proceed more quickly. Additionally, the protocols for the trials are overseen by the federal government, as opposed to traditional public-private partnerships, in which pharmaceutical companies decide on their own protocols.

Rather than eliminating steps from traditional vaccine development timelines, the steps outlined under OWS advance simultaneously, such as starting manufacturing of the vaccine at an industrial scale well before the demonstration of vaccine efficacy and safety as happens under normal vaccine development. This increases costs associated with development but does not risk the safety or efficacy of the vaccine and compresses the overall timeline, but not the clinical study timeline.

Additionally, according to the CDC, Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) are two diseases caused by coronaviruses that are closely related to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Researchers began working on developing vaccines for these diseases after they were discovered in 2003 and 2012, respectively. None of the SARS vaccines ever made it past the first stages of development and testing, in large part because the virus disappeared.

One MERS vaccine (MVA-MERS-S) successfully completed a phase 1 clinical trial in 2019. Lessons learned from this earlier vaccine research have been used to inform strategies for developing a COVID-19 vaccine.

Vaccines are stored in specific conditions to avoid losing effectiveness of the ingredients. In particular, mRNA vaccine technology requires cold temperatures to preserve the vaccine and its properties. Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be kept extremely cold—minus 70 degrees Celsius—

requiring special freezers, or the use of dry ice. Moderna’s vaccine needs to be frozen too, but at only minus 20 Celsius—more like a regular freezer.

Because none of the COVID-19 vaccines currently in development in the United States use the live virus that causes COVID-19, getting the vaccine cannot give you COVID-19. It typically takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity after vaccination. That means it’s possible a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and get sick. This is because the vaccine has not had enough time to provide protection.

At first, COVID-19 vaccines may not be recommended for children less than 18 years old. The Pfizer vaccine is currently for individuals 16 years of age or older.

In the early clinical trials for various COVID-19 vaccines, only non-pregnant adults participated. However, clinical trials continue to expand, and the groups recommended to receive the vaccines could change in the future.

If you are not feeling well, it is recommended that you wait until you are feeling better to get the vaccine.

The vaccine requires two doses three or four weeks apart, depending upon vaccine. Immunity takes some time to develop- at least two weeks after last the last injection. For example, someone vaccinated in late December won’t be fully protected until late January or early February.

Yes. While experts learn more about the protection that COVID-19 vaccines provide under real-life conditions, it will be important for everyone to continue using all the tools available to us to help stop this pandemic, like covering your mouth and nose with a mask, washing hands often, and staying at least 6 feet away from others. Experts need to understand more about the protection that COVID-19 vaccines provide before deciding to change recommendations on steps everyone should take to slow the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. Other factors, including how many people get vaccinated and how the virus is spreading in communities, will also affect this decision.

Yes. Bristol Health is following all federal and state guidelines in vaccination priorities. We will make all efforts to offer the vaccination to the general public as quickly as possible. We are eager to participate in this national effort to help stop the pandemic.

Yes. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna have both produced COVID-19 vaccines.