The hot topic of conversation for a lot of people right now is COVID-19 and the vaccinations many of us are starting to receive. In light of this, I wanted to write a blog post with a little bit of info about the COVID-19 vaccine and hopefully 'bust some myths' surrounding their production and use!
As some of you may have recently seen on my instagram, I was lucky enough to receive the first dose of the pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Friday!! Like many others, I'm not the biggest fan of needles and was slightly apprehensive, but I knew I would always get a vaccination as soon as it was offered to me, and felt the any side effects would be worthwhile to ensure a level of protection against the disease.
After some conversations with those close to me, it suddenly occurred to me just how inaccessible science can be, and how difficult it can be to understand. I hadn't even considered the fact I understood exactly what a vaccine was, how it was made, and what was in it, and how scary it could be to the general public if they didn't know this information. So, first things first...
What is a vaccine?
A vaccine is a substance that mimics the cause of a disease (e.g. a virus), causing a response in the body, similar to that seen in an infection, without actually causing the disease. In the case of Sars-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), the vaccine contains snippets of the genetic code (called mRNA) found in the virus itself, but it can't cause infection as the whole virus isn't present. Okay, so now we know what vaccines are, but what is the point in using them?
Why are vaccines so important?
Vaccines have been used for many years, to prevent diseases such as meningitis and tuberculosis. Vaccines attempt to provide immunity to an individual, by causing them to produce antibodies in response to an infection, helping them fight the disease. If someone has previously had an infection, the antibodies they produced stay in the body, so if they are infected again, the antibodies are ready and waiting to fight the infection, often before symptoms even start. This is the principle behind most people only getting chicken pox once - if you are re-infected at a later stage, most people have enough antibodies already, to fight the infection before it progresses to the disease. Vaccines follow the same logic. The COVID-19 vaccine 'infects' the body, without actually making it ill, providing antibodies in case of a 'real' infection. The less people that are infected, the less people can pass on the disease, meaning the lower the disease prevalence within the population is - this is termed herd immunity. The result is protection for those in the population who haven't been vaccinated, as so many people have, there is very little spread within the community - this is the principle of mass vaccination for COVID-19 too.
If vaccines don't cause disease, why are people getting side effects?
I have been very lucky to have fairly mild symptoms after my first dose, but I know others haven't been so lucky. So, if we don't have a COVID-19 infection, why do we get the side effects? Well, what many people don't realise is, often the symptoms experienced during an infection actually come from the body fighting the disease, rather than the infection itself... For example, a runny nose/coughing/sneezing when you have a cold is actually your body trying to flush out the infection. It is the same principle with a vaccine. Your body has responded to what it thinks is an infection, so will respond in the same way. A temperature is your body trying to kill the pathogen (e.g. virus), cold-like symptoms is your body trying to physically remove the source of infection, tiredness is as a result of your body working harder than normal to remove the infection... So if anything, a few mild symptoms are reassuring - it means your body has detected the vaccine and is responding to it!
**Although please note - symptoms aren't a measure of the antibody response, and there is no evidence linking severity of vaccine side effects and immunity to disease**
To finish up, I understand that vaccines aren't for everybody, and everyone will have their own opinion about their use, but I thought it was important to at least raise awareness about what vaccines actually are, and explain the rationale behind their use, in general, and in relation to COVID-19. If anybody has any questions at all, I am by no means an expert, but am more than happy to explain the basic science behind them! Feel free to leave a comment below or DM me on my instagram (by clicking on the symbol at the top of the page).
I genuinely do feel each and every vaccination is a step closer to normality, and have been so pleased at the reports of such high uptake of vaccines - let's try and stick together, be kind to each other, be sensible, and get each other through the other side of this horrible ordeal!
Stay safe everybody, and as always - thanks for reading.
All the best,
B x
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