It’s a secret to no one that our world has been struck by a very big and hard to defeat challenge, the COVID-19 pandemic. Society has been dealing with this disease for over a year, and it’s very likely that our lives won’t fully go back to normal (pre-pandemic normal) for a long time. The good news is that science has come to develop different methods of protection against the virus. Some of which prevents (or helps to prevent) the spread of the virus, like wearing masks and social distancing, and others that minimize and contain the effects that contracting the virus can have in an organism, like the vaccines.
The creation of said vaccines has arisen many questions from a great number of people who are concerned about what they’ll do to their bodies, and if it’ll actually be good for them. Concerns that in many cases come from a place of misunderstanding about how things like this work, so in hopes of changing that, and enlightening whoever might be reading this with more knowledge about this, following will be explained the way that vaccines work and how will the different COVID vaccines that are being distributed react to one’s body.
First of all, how do vaccines work?
According to WHO (world health organization), vaccines contain inactive or weakened parts of a harmful organism (an antigen) that causes an immune response in the body that received said vaccine. The antigen won’t give the person who receives the vaccine the disease that it normally would cause, instead, it will prepare their immune system to respond as if it had been the original antigen, creating antibodies who will then create antibody-producing memory cells that will help the organism fight the actual disease if ever contracted, and will reduce any negative effects it may have.
Now, which vaccines are currently safe and available?
Both the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the CDC (Center for Disease Control) have authorized and recommended the three following vaccines to prevent COVID-19:
The Pfizer vaccine:
The type mRNA BNT162b2 vaccine, developed by Pfizer, Inc., and BioNTech is administered in 2 shots 21 days apart from each other and you will be fully vaccinated 2 weeks after your second shot. It’s currently available and recommended for people aged 16 and older.
The Moderna vaccine:
The mRNA type mRNA-1273 vaccine, developed by ModernaTX, Inc., is administered in 2 shots 28 days apart from each other, and you will be fully vaccinated 2 weeks after your second shot. It’s currently available and recommended for people aged 18 and older.
The Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine:
The Viral Vector type JNJ-78436735 vaccine, developed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals Companies of Johnson & Johnson, is administrated in 1 shot, and you will be fully vaccinated 2 weeks after it. It’s currently available and recommended for people aged 18 and older. Although it’s been approved by the FDA and the CDC, this vaccine has a risk of blood clots with low platelets after vaccination for women younger than 50, risk that has not been seen in other COVID-19 vaccines.
The CDC states that despite being different vaccines, neither of them is best for you than the others since they all have the same risks (with the exception of the J&J vaccine risk for blood clots in young women), therefore it’s advised to not wait for a specific brand and get the first that becomes available for you, clarifying that all currently authorized vaccines are safe, effective and reduce the risks of severe illness.
Non-FDA and CDC approved vaccines available in Colombia.
Besides the three vaccines mentioned before, in Colombia there are currently 2 other vaccines available and being distributed, the AztraZeneca vaccine and the Sinovac vaccine.
AztraZeneca:
The Viral Vector type AZD1222 vaccine, developed by Oxford University is administrated in 2 shots from 8 to 12 weeks apart from each other. It’s currently available and recommended for people between the ages of 18 and 65. Despite not being approved yet by the FDA and the CDC, it was authorized by WHO as an emergency use vaccine. However, there’s a small incidence of a rare type of blood clot that’s related to the use of this vaccine. The risk of this is roughly one in 100,000 for people in their 40s, and rises to one in 60,000 for people in their 30s, so taking this into account, it’s advised for people with previous blood conditions to not get this vaccine unless it’s the last available resource, and if someone experiences blood clotting after receiving the first shot, they shouldn’t get the second one.
Sinovac:
The Inactivated Virus type CoronaVac vaccine, developed by Sinovac, is currently available for distribution in Colombia. Despite being authorized here; this vaccine has shown to have certain side effects on people due to antibody levels being triggered by it more than expected.
How can I get vaccinated?
In Colombia, the government has bought a total of 66.5 million doses for 37.75 million people of the vaccines listed before, that have been planned to distribute in 2 phases divided into 5 stages for vaccination, prioritizing those who are at higher risk due to comorbidities and reach 35 million Colombians fully vaccinated. We’re currently in stage 2 of the first phase, and vaccines are available for first line health professionals, people over the age of 65 and those who have diseases that put them in jeopardy. In the next stage (the third one), vaccines will become available for adults over the age of 50 as well.
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