What to know before you go to your COVID vaccination appointment
By hola | Published | No Comments
With all D.C. adults becoming eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine this past Monday and the entire DMV area by April 18, we wanted to know more about what vaccination would be like. Rather than leave it to misinformed rumors on the Internet, we invited over a couple of friends and asked them to tell us about it.
*A nuestros lectores en español, regrese el lunes para leer la traducción.
Both took part in the Moderna vaccine trial last fall and are now fully vaccinated. Looking back on the experience, they say the opportunity to contribute to solving the pandemic outweighed the risks of participating in the trial, especially since Latinx individuals are more likely to contract COVID. Latinxs are three times more likely to be hospitalized, and more than twice as likely to die from the virus compared to white, non-Latinx persons, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Delia Beristain Noriega, a Fellow in the S.P.E.L. program, and José Ángel Villalobos, the father of another S.P.E.L. Fellow, spoke to Hola Cultura about why they chose to get vaccinated and think you should too, how their families were concerned to their decisions to join a vaccine trial, as well as the mild side effects they experienced after receiving both shots.
Motivated to help their community
Both Beristain and Villalobos said feelings of helplessness motivated them to take part in the testing process by receiving the vaccine even before it had been approved for treating the coronavirus.
“I was thinking, ‘What else can I do?’” said Beristain, pictured below in a screenshot from the zoom interview. Joining a vaccine trial, she said, appealed to her as a way to do more than just follow the CDC guidelines and wear her mask every day.
“A lot of people feel like, ‘Shoot, I’m just sitting around waiting for things to get better.’ I think that kind of made me very anxious, personally,” she said. “It made me motivated to participate in some way.”
Villalobos, who was on the same zoom interview with Beristain, said he had some concerns at the trial’s outset, but thought the end goal was worth it.
“I’m not Superman, but I think it was important to participate,” Villalobos said, “because every day that passes without having the vaccine available means a lot of people dying or a lot of people having economic problems, serious ones.”
“I’m not Superman, but I think it was important to participate,” he said, “because every day that passes without having the vaccine available means a lot of people dying or a lot of people having economic problems, serious ones.”
While both are now protected from the virus, Beristain and Villalobos said they’re still concerned about the pace of the vaccine rollout and would like to see more public education.
“I do think we have a long way to go, not just because of the availability of the vaccine … but also as far as the huge gap [in] education goes,” despite information campaigns by the government and the news media, said Beristain. She thinks passing along more vaccine facts and dispelling myths by word-of-mouth may be the best way of “making sure that people understand why it’s so important to get the shots.”
“Hopefully this information coming from all different angles [will] encourage our friends and family and anyone else to get vaccinated,” Beristain said.
Vaccine Distribution
The District of Columbia and Maryland have already opened vaccination to all residents 16-years-old or older, while Virginia is waiting till next Monday, April 18.
Nationwide vaccination began with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines last December starting with the elderly and people with certain health problems. By February the Federal Drug Administration had also approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. According to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker approximately 190 million doses have been administered to date. About 20% of the D.C. area population and 22% of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated as of April 14, according to Our World in Data.
How are the vaccines made and how well do they work?
In the U.S., federal officials have approved three vaccines for U.S. distribution from the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Moderna and the vaccine division of Johnson & Johnson. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one shot, but federal health officials paused the company’s vaccine rollout earlier this week after six cases of a rare blood clotting disorder were found in women between the ages of 18 and 49. A panel of Federal Drug Administration health officials is now reviewing the cases and assessing their significance. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines both require two doses: a priming dose followed by a booster shot. The interval between doses is 21 days for Pfizer, while it’s 28 days for Moderna’s drug.
The Modern and Pfizer are also similar in that both utilize mRNA, or messenger RNA, a single-stranded molecule that “teaches our cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside our bodies,” according to the CDC, which says the immune response produces antibodies that protect us from getting infected when exposed to the real virus.
The vaccines must be kept at very cold temperatures, because mRNA is very sensitive to changes in temperatures. Pfizer’s vaccine requires storage at -80 C to -60 C. It is viable for just five days in the refrigerator after removal from cold storage. Moderna is a little less sensitive to temperature changes but still must be kept at -25 C to -15 C and remains viable for 30 days after removal from cold storage, if refrigerated.
Although both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines have been shown to prevent symptomatic covid infection by 95% and 94%, respectively, it’s still possible to contract the virus or be asymptomatic. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine demonstrates 66% efficacy and is 85% effective at preventing severe cases of the disease.
What should I bring to my vaccination appointment?
Some vaccination sites will ask for proof of identity or eligibility, according to the CDC. Officials recommend that you bring a driver’s license or other state-issued ID that shows your name, age, state residency, and if you have one, an insurance card. You will not be charged, but the vaccine provider may bill your insurer a fee for administering the vaccine. You’ll also need to wear a mask at your appointment.
After getting vaccinated, you’ll receive a vaccine card that shows your name, birth date, the vaccine you received and the date it was administered. If you received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, you’ll need to bring the card when you get your second shot.
You may need your vaccine card for travel or other activities, so make sure to hold on to it even if you finished your second vaccine. If you lose your card or did not receive one, contact your vaccine provider or your local health department to get a copy.
Errr — side effects?
According to the CDC side effects typically show up within a day or two of receiving the vaccine and go away within a few days. Both Beristein and Villalobos experienced minor side effects like headache, soreness, and chills for a few days after each had their second shot. Some other possible side effects common for these and other types of vaccinations include pain at the injection site, fatigue, muscle pain, joint pain and fever. As the body builds protection against the virus, vaccine experts say minor side effects are normal.
As a participant of the vaccine trial, Beristain didn’t know until after receiving her second dose whether she received the actual vaccine or a placebo. When she started shivering, and came down with head- and body-aches after receiving her second shot, she wasn’t sure what to do.
“When I received the second shot, I did start to worry a little bit because I did experience some side effects,” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh, shoot. Ok, if I got the placebo, this means that I might be sick. But if I did get the vaccine, this might just be the side effects …So, I shouldn’t worry too much.’ It did stress me out a little bit for a few days.”
You are vaccinated — now what?
The CDC recommends that even after getting vaccinated people should continue to wear masks, practice physical distancing, and other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19.
“They’re very clear with you about the fact that, you know, this doesn’t mean that you can just go out and party,” Beristain recalls of her final days in the vaccine trial. “You still have to be careful and continue to take care of yourself and keep other people’s well being in mind.”
For those who have their own fears, deciding to get vaccinated might be a tough first step, but Villalobos emphasized the importance of Latinxs receiving the vaccine. Since Latinxs were well represented in the trial, people should not be worried, he said.
“Latinos can be reassured that the vaccine is safe for us and the effectiveness has also been tested,” he said. “So, don’t be afraid.”
Follow these links to pre-register for the vaccines, if you live in Washington D.C., Virginia, or Maryland.
—Story by Melissa Pérez Carrillo with vaccine research and fact-checking by Sarah Patsell and infographic by Geritza Carrasco; interview by Mariángel Villalobos, Melissa Pérez Carrillo, Sarah Patsell, and Vanessa Romero Gutierrez
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