All your COVID vaccine questions answered
Unknown side effects are the biggest fear many have about getting the COVID vaccine— but experts explain why people with food allergies shouldn’t worry.
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Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine has landed in Australia ahead of the first round of vaccinations to be rolled out next week.
While many have long-been awaiting the day a COVID-19 jab would be available, some are concerned about the long-term effects of this quickly turned-around vaccine.
A concerning number of Victorians say they will not agree to be voluntarily vaccinated once the COVID-19 jab is made available, according to a new poll by research firm RedBridge.
We asked two coronavirus vaccine experts to explain how it’ll work and to debunk any myths.
Associate Professor Margie Danchin is an immunisation expert at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Professor Colin Pouton works at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and is the lead on the mRNA vaccine program with the Doherty Institute.
I’M WORRIED IT’S BEEN MADE SO QUICKLY
MD: “It is important to reassure people there are a number of reasons why this vaccine has been made so quickly.”
“A huge number of resources have been directed to vaccination development — and I’m talking billions of dollars — to make this necessary on a global scale.”
“These vaccine platforms are not new — mRNA vaccines have been around since the early 2000s and the first mRNA vaccine was used in 2008. These are not new vaccine platforms and were able to be brought into the COVID vaccination space quite quickly, along with huge resources in terms of dollar investments.”
“Regulatory approvals have also occurred quickly. No important phases of the vaccine trials have been skipped and every vaccine has to be approved by a regulator (the TGA in Australia) and all data has to be provided from each of the three phases.”
“The most important phase is phase 4, which is when the vaccine is introduced into the population on a large scale. It allows monitoring of any mild or severe side effects.”
“Phase 4 is about safety and evaluation monitoring. You can evaluate the vaccines for safety signals and evaluate the impact that has on the population.”
CP: “The speed of development of the mRNA and adenovirus vaccines is due to a few factors: 1). A huge amount of funding was made available which allowed large teams to be deployed. 2). The new technologies are quicker 3). The phase 3 trials were concluded earlier than usual because of the urgency — and the approvals in many countries have been for ‘emergency use’.
THEY HAVEN’T TESTED IT ON ENOUGH PEOPLE TO KNOW IT’S SAFE
CP: “The vaccines have each been tested on about 20,000 people (plus 20,000 controls) in the Phase 3 efficacy trials. Since then, many millions of people have been vaccinated with very few reports of adverse effects. A recent study from Israel looked at the efficacy of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine in 600,000 people and confirmed its efficacy at preventing bad cases of COVID-19.”
WHAT IF I HAVE PRE-EXISTING HEALTH CONDITIONS?
MD: “Anybody who has an underlying medical condition and is concerned about getting the vaccine should discuss with their medical provider.”
CP: “It’shard to generalise. If a person is prone to allergic reactions they should be cautious.”
I’M WORRIED ABOUT AN ALLERGIC REACTION
MD: “Most people who have anaphylaxis to food or environmental allergens will be able to have the vaccine, which is the opposite to what many people think.”
“This is a precautionary group and may be vaccinated in a controlled setting, like a hospital.”
“The true contraindication that you cannot have the vaccine is if you have had an anaphylactic reaction to any previous COVID-19 vaccines. At the moment, nobody is in this category because they haven’t had it.”
“There are two other precautionary groups — those who have anaphylaxis to any other vaccine or if they have had anaphylaxis to multiple drugs.”
“Everybody giving a COVID vaccine is trained and there are a fantastic resources to support providers during this whole process, including consent. The public should be reassured there’s robust process in place to give the vaccine.”
CP: “There will be mild allergic reactions that will subside without problems. The concern is with very acute reactions (anaphylactic reactions). These develop within 15 to 30 minutes which is why people are asked to remain at the clinic for this amount of time to make sure. With medical treatment these rare reactions can be brought under control.”
WHAT’S THE POINT OF GETTING THE VACCINE IF IT DOESN’T STOP ME FROM GETTING COVID?
CP: “The vaccines do stop people from getting sick with COVID-19. That is what the trials were set up to test (>90% for BioNTech/Pfizer). We are not sure yet to what extent they stop the virus being transmitted. Almost certainly they do though — because if you don’t have a bad case of COVID-19 you will not be coughing large amounts of virus into the air around you.”
IT WON’T MATTER IF I DON’T GET THE VACCINE, AS HEAPS OF OTHER PEOPLE WILL
CP: “To some extent that may be true — but remember they do protect individuals from disease. From an ethical point of view we all have a duty to take the vaccine to help protect the population and approach the herd immunity that is often spoken about. We need a high percentage of the population to be vaccinated.”
I’M PLANNING ON HAVING KIDS THIS YEAR AND WORRIED ABOUT GETTING THE VACCINE AND FALLING PREGNANT
MD: “In that group, I’d encourage them to strongly get the vaccine. If they are planning pregnancy it is highly advisable — as you can protect yourself before you get pregnant and relieves you from having to accept the vaccine in pregnancy.”
A great resource about vaccination and pregnancy can be found here.
WHY DO I HAVE TO GET THE VACCINE BUT MY KIDS DON’T?
CP: “At the moment the vaccines are not approved for use in children. More clinical safety trials will likely follow in children.”
I’VE READ OVERSEAS THAT IT’S NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PEOPLE AGED OVER 65
CP: “The number of aged people involved in the vaccine efficacy studies was limited. As more older people are vaccinated there will be more safety data emerging. But older people clearly suffer more from COVID-19 so there is more to be gained from the vaccine. I don’t think there are any reasons to actively avoid the vaccine. The deaths in Norway that were reported were extremely old or terminally ill patients. It may not make sense to vaccinate those groups.”
THEY HAVEN’T USED THE VACCINE ENOUGH TO KNOW OF ANY LONG TERM SIDE EFFECTS
MD: “That’s where this phase 4 monitoring is very important. With most vaccines, we don’t have any long-term data by the time they are evaluated. There are really robust safety systems in place across Australia.”
“You hear about vaccines enhancing diseases and these safety signals will be picked up pretty quickly if reports are being made.
“These platforms have been used before on other diseases so based on that experience, we aren’t anticipating any long term effects, especially if we are monitoring a long term roll out.”
CP: “Long-term side effects are not expected and if they emerge they are likely to be very rare. In the pandemic it is about risk versus benefit. The benefit far outweighs the risk — particularly for ageing people. For younger people the benefit is in protecting the broader community.”
WHY CAN’T THEY JUST MAKE A VACCINE THAT REQUIRES ONE JAB AND WE’RE PROTECTED FOR LIFE?
CP: “A one-shot vaccine is very desirable but experience tells us that vaccines usually require boosting to get a strong immune response. Immune responses sometimes fall away with time. At present we do not know how long COVID-19 immunity will last. But it is clear that with the current mRNA and protein vaccines the second dose is critical for good protection. The adenovirus vaccines (e..g Oxford/AZ) are different — the second dose does not add that much to the immune response. Hence J&J marketed a single shot adenovirus-based vaccine. The Russian adenovirus vaccine gets around this problem by using two different adenovirus products.”
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Originally published as All your COVID vaccine questions answered
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