Some Florida residents are over due to their second dose of coronavirus vaccine because many people are worried about the possible side effects of the vaccine.
© Photo by Joe Raedle / Getty Images / Getty
A health care worker with American Medical Response, Inc. working with the Florida Department of Health in Broward is shown above carrying a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the John Knox Village Continuing Care Retirement Community on January 6, 2021 in Pompano Beach, Florida, administered.
The two COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United States each require a second dose approximately 3-4 weeks after the first to be fully effective. The Pfizer vaccine requires a second dose after 21 days, and the Moderna vaccine after 28 days.
More than 1 million Florida residents have been vaccinated for COVID-19, and nearly 92,000 of them have already followed up their second dose, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Of the remaining 915,000 people who received the first dose, more than 40,000 of them are in arrears for their second shot.
Many of them are elderly people who are concerned about side effects of the follow-up dose.
Jason Mahon, a spokesman for the health department, told the local newspaper South Florida Sun-Sentinal that everyone who received the first dose was immediately scheduled for their second dose. Mahon also noted that 80 percent of the people who received the second dose received it.
The problem for many Florida residents who do not receive the second dose is not available because Florida has vaccinated nearly 2 million doses, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Although the exact reason why some Floridians skip the second dose is unclear, some speculate that it is related to the side effects of the booster shot.
“I heard there are some seniors who are not trying to get the second shot because they have heard that the side effects are worse with the second shot,” Todd Husty, an emergency medical director in Seminole County, told the local television station WFLA said.
According to the CDC, side effects can include pain and swelling at the injection site, fever, chills, fatigue and headaches. Some people have reported attenuated side effects after the second ingestion of the vaccine. However, health officials noted that severe symptoms of the vaccine are rare.
Husty said the solution is to teach people that COVID-19 is much worse than the side effects of the vaccine.
More than 11,000 new cases of coronavirus and 133 deaths were reported in Florida on January 17. In the past week, there were an average of 13,467 new cases daily, according to data from the New York Times. In the course of the pandemic, the state saw more than 1.5 million cases and 24,000 deaths.
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FOLLOWING
Florida is one of eight states that have reported the more infectious B.1.1.7 variant. Cases of the variant have also been identified in Colorado, California, Georgia, New York, Texas, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Although, health officials warn that the variant is likely to spread unnoticed across the country.
Newsweek reached the Florida Department of Health for comment.
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