The Why and Update
Hi everyone,
There’s a lot of developing news around Covid Vaccines. I will try to keep you up to date as official recommendations are made. As always, please feel free to e-mail me any questions you may have. If you are having any concerns about the vaccine please let me know so we can discuss it. If you aren’t yet vaccinated skip down to the last two sections.
Covid vaccine Boosters
The Pfizer vaccine has been officially approved by the FDA for a third dose at least 6 months after the first two doses.
What does this mean?
All of the vaccines are helpful in lessening the incidence of severe disease due to Covid-19. The vaccines are doing what they were intended to do and the recommendation for a booster does not negate this fact. However, like many other vaccines it has been shown that antibody levels may decrease over time and a third injection can bring up those antibody levels up and provide a more robust immune defense. It may also help increase the protection against mild to moderate disease in cases of “breakthrough” infections.
**Vaccinated individuals are 8x less likely to be infected, and 25x less likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19.
Who qualifies for a booster?
For right now only Pfizer is approved for booster. However, if you are immunocompromised you qualify for a booster from either Moderna or Pfizer. You will need to get the same as the first two.
J&J vaccine has not yet been approved for any booster. Moderna booster for everyone else will likely come soon. The data and dosage is still being evaluated. Mixing of brands is not recommended and has not yet been studied enough.
Pfizer Booster Guidelines:
These groups SHOULD get a Pfizer booster at least 6 months after second Pfizer vaccine:
People aged 65 years and older
Residents aged 18 years and older in long-term care settings
People aged 50–64 years with underlying medical conditions
These groups MAY get a Pfizer booster at least 6 months after second Pfizer vaccine:
People aged 18–49 years with underlying medical conditions
People aged 18–64 years at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting
What if I got the Moderna or J&J Vaccine?
The Moderna 3rd dose is only being given to those that are immunocompromised. It is still being reviewed for a 3rd dose and the dosage may potentially change for a 3rd dose. This should be reviewed soon and a recommendation given. As for J&J, most likely there will also be a recommendation for a second vaccine dose but we have to wait to see what the data shows and recommendations once it’s reviewed.
What if I am not yet vaccinated or I already had Covid-19?
I strongly recommend vaccination for anyone unvaccinated age 12 and up and pretty soon 5 yrs old and up. As mentioned above, unvaccinated people are 8x more likely to be infected than vaccinated people, and 25x more likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19. The majority of hospitalizations over 90% in this Delta surge have been unvaccinated people. Boosters will not slow down this pandemic but vaccinating those that are unvaccinated will.
If you have had COVID-19, there are some great studies showing that you do have some natural immunity, however how long that lasts is unknown and that immunity may not be great against different variants. The vaccine induced antibodies tend to do much better with variants. What the newest studies have shown is that if you’ve had Covid plus an mRNA vaccine causes a much more robust immune response and therefore protects you even more so than just the vaccinated immune response. Think of it almost as Super Immune! This is definitely not a reason to go out and try to catch Covid-19 on purpose. You’d be seriously playing Russian roulette with that. But, if you’ve already had Covid-19 and get a vaccine your immune system can be a kick butt super hero against Covid-19.
Why is vaccination important?
I’ve already given this statistic in other questions but again…
Unvaccinated people are 8x more likely to be infected by Covid and 25x more likely to die or be hospitalized by Covid.
So think of it this way, if you are a warrior and are going into a battle, you’d want to take a weapon and some armor with you right? You wouldn’t go weapon and armor less. Sure you can maybe rely on treatment after the fact if your wounded but that’s pretty risky. You may or may not make it to care on time and they may or may not be able to take care of your injuries.
Think of the vaccine as your weapon and part of your armor. Wearing a mask indoors and in crowded situations is like carrying a shield. Everyday we are in a battle against Covid-19. It is everywhere and will be around for many years to come. Now the question is do you want to go out into the battlegrounds protected or do you want to go out weapon and armor less.
The more protection we have against this virus the faster we can get back to a semblance of normal life where we can travel, work, go to school, bars, restaurants, visit family, hug, kiss, shake hands without the constant looming black cloud of anyone of these things causing harm to ourselves or our loved ones.
Sincerely,
Tania Velez, MD
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