The majority of The Telescope Staff agree that the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. are safe and effective against COVID-19.
The Telescope believes that the only way to lift us out of the pandemic and get back to a sense of normalcy is by getting vaccinated. For those who are still hesitant to get vaccinated, please consider the evidence.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that about 49 percent of the total U.S. population has one dose of the vaccine and about 39 percent are fully vaccinated. A study done at Cambridge, Mass. found that the Moderna vaccine prevented all 3,732 recipients from getting COVID-19.
Those participants ranged from ages 12 to 17. The vaccines are now recommended for people as young as 12 years old, which will increase the percentage of total vaccinations in the U.S.
The Pfizer, Moderna and J&J vaccines do not contain eggs, harmful preservatives or latex. Before getting the vaccine, check with your physician so that you know, based on your health records, if you are safe to get vaccinated. The CDC lists the ingredients that are in all FDA-approved vaccines.
Last month, there were 5,800 “breakthrough infections” out of nearly 77 million fully-vaccinated people in the U.S. These “breakthrough infections” aren’t unexpected because no vaccine is 100 percent effective. The CDC is still investigating breakthrough case infections and what they really mean.
The CDC reported 1,949 hospitalized or fatal vaccine breakthrough cases. 354 deaths were reported as asymptomatic or unrelated to COVID-19. Those deaths are 18 percent out of the total breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated people.
After getting two doses of the Pfizer vaccine or Moderna vaccine, it still takes two weeks for a person to be declared immune from COVID-19. It is the same with the J&J single-dose vaccine. It wasn’t specified by the CDC if these breakthrough cases had been infected within or after the two-week period of getting fully vaccinated.
Since there are some people who are still skeptical about getting vaccinated, it is important that those fully-vaccinated wear masks and maintain social distancing. The CDC announced that fully-vaccinated people can resume daily activities inside and outside without wearing a mask or physical distancing, except if it is required under federal or state laws and regulations.
When we go into public places, we don’t know who is vaccinated or not, unless people show proof of their vaccination by their vaccination records.
The vaccines are free so there shouldn’t be any reason to not get vaccinated. It slows down our progress to get back to any resemblance of “normalcy.” Get vaccinated today by making an appointment. It is the only way to get herd immunity worldwide.