Covid Vaccine: Everything You Need To Know

In December 2019, the world saw a rise of a very tiny virus not visible to the naked eye, which soon took over the world in a few months; what started in Wuhan as an unknown infection, infecting a few hundred soon took millions all over the world captive, as of now 108M people have been infected, and 2.38M people lost their lives worldwide the USA, India, and Brazill being the top 3 infected country due to the virus.

Covid-19, or coronavirus disease of 2019, is still fast-spreading and mutating with great speed, and so is the hunt for a vaccine worldwide; until now, only a few countries have managed to develop a vaccine that has undergone or undergoing  phase 3 trials, America being one of them with moderna and Pfizer vaccines approved for emergency use and already out for the public, here we have a list of few important things that you need to know about these covid-19 vaccines:

What The Vaccine Consists Of?

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccine are mRNA vaccine, not like the other vaccines known, which is comprised of doses of the dead virus or live but inactivated virus which won’t replicate. The new vaccines instead have a small portion of the virus’s mRNA sequence, which directs the body to develop a spike protein that is also present on the virus surface.

How Does The Vaccine Work?

The spike protein, when produced by the body, will generate an immune response by the body, and the body will then produce antibodies against it; hence, when the actual virus enters the body, the body already knows how to respond to it and which antibodies it needs to fight against it. The vaccine is just a small part of the virus; hence the body is at no risk of the virus infection or replication, and you won’t fall sick for the same, so the rumor that you get infected by the virus when vaccinated is false, but you may have some side effects when you take the vaccine which is expected in case of every vaccine.

What Are The Side Effects?

Some of the most common side effects experienced by people in the clinical trials and others who were vaccinated are:

1) Dizziness and headache.

2) pain at the site of injection.

3) fever and chills.

4) fatigue.

5) muscle pain and joint pain.

6) nausea.

Other than these, there were some individual symptoms experienced by some people since everyone’s body reacts differently to a particular infection; it was also noticed that the actual virus symptoms were not seen in most of the people vaccinated. 

How Many Doses? 

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines consist of two doses, with an interval of 21 days between the first and the second jab for Pfizer and 28 days interval for Moderna. In some cases, the second dose might be delayed due to logistic reasons keeping in mind the huge vaccination program, so the question many have is, is it okay if the second shot is delayed due to some reason? The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has updated its guidelines, saying the max days of interval between the first jab and second can be 42 days. Still, it’s advisable to stick to the original schedule.