Hi, I'm Marlene Millen.
I'm a physician and primary care doctor
at UC San Diego Health.
I'm also their chief medical information officer,
and I been lucky enough to be one of the leads
in rolling out our vaccine.
(bright music)
COVID-19 vaccines that are currently available
is the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine.
Both of them are quoted around 95% effective.
That's after both doses,
so it's really important that everyone understand
both doses are needed to get that level.
So after you get vaccinated, it's really important
to continue wearing a mask.
We know that the vaccine is protective
against causing COVID, but we don't know a hundred percent
if it's gonna protect an asymptomatic spread.
In addition, if your county or area is requiring masks,
it's really important to keep wearing it
to show that you think it's important
to protect yourself and others from COVID.
No, you cannot get COVID-19 from the COVID vaccine.
Like all vaccines, this is just
to turn your immune system on.
It doesn't contain any live virus.
So COVID vaccine, like all vaccines,
will cause a sore arm, very common, not a worry at all.
Lasts about a day or two.
I, myself, when I got my vaccine,
had a little bit of a sore arm.
Some people get like low-grade temperature,
chills, and that's pretty mild.
Again, lasting about a day or two.
Some people get a little bit more reaction,
and that shows their immune system's working really well,
so you can get like, you know, feeling a little sicker,
maybe needing to take some Tylenol for your symptoms.
But everyone usually feels better within about two days.
And all vaccines cause something called reactogenicity.
It's a fancy word that means your immune system is saying,
"Hey, there's a vaccine.
"Let me make some immune response to it."
And so when you get that immune response,
that tells us your immune system's working.
Now if you don't get any immune response,
it doesn't mean it's not working.
In fact, you know, it could work just as well.
But some people get a little bit more immune response,
and that's when they'll get those little aches,
and, you know, slight fevers,
and so people think that that's a problem,
but it's actually a function of a vaccine.
It's telling your immune system to turn on,
just to help rev you up so that if you ever do
see that disease, it's already seen it before,
and it won't do the same kind of blowup response.
So reactogenicity is what we say
instead of like a side effect,
because it's not really a side effect to the vaccine,
it's actually something that we expect.
As I mentioned earlier, you can get side effects
with vaccines, but premedicating is not recommended.
If you get any symptoms afterwards,
then taking a Tylenol or Advil is fine.
However, premedicating is not recommended
unless your personal physician says something.
If you have a history of allergies,
it's important to talk with your doctor first,
but most people with allergy history can take the vaccine.
The one case that you wouldn't wanna take it
is if you've ever had a COVID-19 vaccine
and had a reaction to that,
or any of the ingredients in the COVID-19 vaccine.
All other types of allergies,
you should let your vaccinator know,
and they can watch you longer.
You can also review with your doctor ahead of time
any of your concerns, and they can let you know
any particular risks that you can decrease
by doing things before your vaccine.
Right now for children, the only vaccine that's approved
is the Pfizer vaccine for 16 and up.
We are going to be offering it to those age ranges
when we get to them, and it's really important again
that you talk with your doctor.
Future vaccines hopefully will allow younger patients
to get the vaccine, but as of right now, it's Pfizer only.
You may hear the term vaccine hesitancy.
That means that someone's thinking about the vaccine
and its side effects and concerned about them
and may not take a vaccine.
So it's really important if you fall into that category
or know someone that's in that category,
that you look up and talk to reputable sources.
It's really important not to just go on Facebook,
or listen to a story from a friend.
It's important to get the information from someone
that is a expert in that field or an expert in you.
If you've had COVID-19 in the past,
we think that the immunity lasts
from that illness about 90 days,
maybe a little shorter, maybe a little longer.
So we're definitely encouraging folks
that have had COVID-19 in the past to get the vaccine,
because we've had cases of folks getting it again.
We also have multiple health care workers
that are getting COVID-19 vaccines
that have a history of it and not seeing any major issues.
After you receive your COVID-19 vaccine,
unfortunately it's not a passport
to go back to life as normal.
You should still follow your county and local guidelines,
and remember again, you need both vaccines to be effective,
and also remember around you others likely haven't
fully been vaccinated.
In addition, travel restriction should be obeyed
and not ignored just because you got the vaccine.