As has been the case with COVID-19 all year, there are many misconceptions floating around about the vaccine for the virus which shut down much of the world throughout 2020.
There are false or misleading reports out there that say that some people are getting some nasty side effects from the vaccine, a claim that the Chief Nursing Officer at Holy Family Memorial, Tom Veeser, said he has not seen in any of the people that have been vaccinated locally.
“The general things are pretty similar to any vaccination,” he explained. “A sore arm, maybe some people not feeling well or tired. We haven’t had any anaphylaxis or any issues such as that.”
Veeser said that they are working their way through getting the vaccine administered to all of the hospital staff, as well as firefighters and EMS personnel. The next phase of administration will be for other healthcare individuals. It should also be noted that nursing homes are getting vaccines through CVS and Walgreens right now.
As for everyone else, Veeser said, “We believe…the elderly may be as soon as February or March, but we don’t have a defined time and the general public by late March or April. That’s the best timetable we can see right now.”
While that may seem like a long time to wait, it should be noted that most vaccines take over a year to produce, while the COVID-19 vaccine was first administered a mere 10 months since the first major spike of cases in the US.
Veeser said that the reason for this vaccine getting completed so quickly was a combination of the widespread nature of the virus, and…“You build on past success. Some of the framework that they used for creating this vaccine through molecular biology has been previous work, then taking that technology and adjusting it to this virus. The federal government put an awful lot of resources into the private sector, and essentially eliminated a lot of barriers so they could move faster.”
Veeser also noted that the vaccine is free to everyone. An administration bill may be charged to your insurance company, but nothing will come out of your pocket.
He put it bluntly, “Unless you are pregnant, there should be no excuse for you to not get the vaccine.”
