Representatives of Public Health England and AstraZeneca did not respond to requests for comment.
Both Pfizer’s and AstraZeneca’s vaccines introduce a protein called spike into the body which, although not contagious, can teach immune cells to recognize and fight the real coronavirus.
Covid19 vaccines>
Answers to your vaccine questions
With the spread of a coronavirus vaccine starting in the US, here are answers to a few questions you can ask yourself:
-
- If I live in the United States, when can I get the vaccine? Although the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, medical workers and residents of long-term care institutions are likely to be first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.
- When can I return to normal life after being vaccinated? Life will only become normal when society as a whole gets enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries approve a vaccine, they will be able to vaccinate at most a few percent of their citizens in the first few months. The unvaccinated majority will still be vulnerable to infection. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines offer strong protection against disease. But it is also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they are infected, because they experience only mild symptoms or not at all. Scientists do not yet know whether the vaccination also blocks the transmission of the coronavirus. For now, even vaccinated people will have to wear masks, crowds inside, and so on. Must avoid. Once enough people are vaccinated, it will be difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people who can become infected. Depending on how quickly we as a society reach the goal, life may begin by the fall of 2021 to approach something as normal.
- Do I still have to wear a mask if I have been vaccinated? Yes, but not forever. Here’s why. The coronavirus vaccines are injected deep into the muscles and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies. This appears to be adequate protection to prevent the vaccinated person from becoming ill. But what is not clear is whether the virus could possibly flower in the nose – and be depleted or exhaled to infect others – even if antibodies are mobilized elsewhere in the body to prevent the vaccinated person from becoming ill. The clinical trials with vaccinations are designed to determine whether vaccinated people are protected against disease – not to find out if they can still spread the coronavirus. Based on studies on flu vaccine and even patients infected with Covid-19, researchers have reason to hope that people who have been vaccinated will not spread the virus, but more research is needed. Meanwhile, everyone – even vaccinated people – will have to think of themselves as possible silent distributors and continue to wear a mask. Read more here.
- Will it hurt? What are the side effects? The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered like a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection into your arm will not feel different from any other vaccine, but the rate of transient side effects may seem higher than a flu shot. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported serious health problems. The side effects, which may look like the symptoms of Covid-19, last for about a day and are more likely to occur after the second dose. Early reports of vaccination trials suggest that some people may have to take a day off from work because they feel unwell after receiving the second dose. In the Pfizer study, about half developed fatigue. Other side effects occurred in at least 25 to 33 percent of patients, sometimes more, including headache, chills, and muscle aches. Although these experiences are not pleasant, it is a good sign that your immune system is getting a powerful response to the vaccine that will provide long-lasting immunity.
- Will mRNA vaccines change my genes? No. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to replenish the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell so that the molecule can slide. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. Each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules at any one time that they produce to make their own proteins. Once those proteins are made, our cells cut the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules that make up our cells can only survive for a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is designed to resist the cells’ enzymes a little longer, allowing the cells to make extra viral proteins and trigger a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only take a few days at most before being destroyed.
But the vaccines give their immunological lessons through different methods, and do not contain equivalent ingredients. While Pfizer’s vaccine depends on a molecule called messenger RNA, or mRNA, packaged in fatty bubbles, AstraZeneca’s shots are designed around a virus shell that produces DNA, a cousin of mRNA.
Both vaccines are intended to be administered in two-shot regimens, delivered three or four weeks apart. Although the first shot of each vaccine is slightly effective in preventing Covid-19, it is the second dose – intended as a kind of molecular review session for the immune system – that clinches the protection process.
Although it is possible that the exchange of one vaccine for another can still teach the body to recognize the coronavirus, it is still a scientific gamble. With different ingredients in each vaccine, it is possible that people will not benefit as much from a second shot. If you mix and match, it can also be more difficult to gather clear data on the safety of vaccines.
Without evidence to support this, the approach to hybrid vaccination seems ‘premature’, said Saad Omer, a vaccination expert at Yale University. This is still not without precedent: health authorities such as the CDC have previously said that if it is impossible to deliver doses of a vaccine from the same manufacturer, ‘suppliers must administer the vaccine they have available’ to inject an injection plan. finish.
In a controversial move this week, the British government also decided to advance the deployment of vaccines and deliver as many first doses to humans as possible – a step that could delay second shots to 12 weeks.
The rapid use can provide more people with partial protection against the virus in the short term. But some experts, including dr. Moore, is concerned that it could also be unwise and that it could threaten vulnerable populations.