Health
Answers to your questions about COVID-19 vaccines
Free Press readers and Michigan Radio listeners have lots of questions about COVID-19. We’ve asked the experts and tracked down sources to help sort through the information swirling about the virus, the vaccines, and more.
Please continue to ask us questions and we’ll continue to seek answers for our readers. Submit your questions to us by emailing Free Press health reporter Kristen Jordan Shamus at [email protected].
Here’s this week’s Q&A:
QUESTION: Can people who’ve had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine still pass coronavirus to others?
ANSWER: Research into this question is ongoing, but both Moderna and Pfizer acknowledge that it is possible someone who has been vaccinated can unknowingly carry virus particles and pass them to others, even if the virus doesn’t make the vaccinated person sick.
More:COVID-19 vaccine shipments to Michigan delayed due to winter storms
More:Michigan expands COVID-19 vaccine eligibility as hospitals, health departments feel supply pinch
The Mayo Clinic acknowledges that we don’t yet fully know how much transmission can happen from a vaccinated person to an unvaccinated person with SARS-CoV-2, but based on what we know about how other viruses behave, and how vaccines work with them, it is possible.
Historically, there are reports of outbreaks of mumps traced back to vaccinated people. In 2009, a person who had been vaccinated for mumps was carrying the virus, and spread it to more than 3,000 people in New York, New Jersey and Quebec, Canada, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Most vaccines don’t fully protect against infection. In the case of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, they keep about 95% of people who are immunized from getting sick. That means that about 1 person in 20 who has had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine might still become ill.
In a new recommendation this month, a CDC advisory committee suggested a change to quarantine protocols for anyone who has had both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. As long as it has been at least two weeks since the second dose but less than three months post-vaccination and the person has no symptoms, there is no need to quarantine following exposure to a person with COVID-19. That suggests the vaccine does limit the spread of the virus, said Dr. Mouhanad Hammami, Wayne County’s chief health strategist, during an interview on Michigan Radio’s “Stateside.”
“That is a good sign,” he said.
Q: Why do I still have to wear a mask if I’ve already been fully vaccinated?
A: It’s because scientists believe there’s a possibility you could still spread the virus to others even if you’ve gotten both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Even with very good vaccines, they’re not perfect,” Dr. Matthew Sims, an infectious disease specialist at Beaumont Health, told the Free Press in late January.
“And so even at best, 1 in 20 people did not get full protection, 5%. The whole goal of this is to get the country to herd immunity. To do that we need … a large number of people to be vaccinated, and we’re nowhere close to that yet.”
More:Macomb County man, 90, dies after COVID-19 vaccine — but doctors say shots are safe
More:Oakland County forms new COVID-19 vaccine partnerships as demand exceeds supply
Hammami agreed.
“Until everybody that are at risk are protected, we would still need to practice the safe measures that we know work,” he said. “So we still have to wear a mask. We still have to maintain physical distancing. We still need to practice the common sense of washing hands and not be around people who are vulnerable or at risk or have an immune system that is weak.
“We won’t be able to be free around each other until we are all or at least the majority are all protected.”
Q: When will it be my turn to get a vaccine? I am eligible, and have signed up online through health systems, my local county health department, Meijer and Rite Aid and still haven’t been able to get a shot. I am desperate.
A: Vaccine supply is still one of the biggest obstacles to getting people in Michigan vaccinated right now. Local health departments and hospital systems say they don’t have enough doses to get COVID-19 vaccines into the arms of everyone who is eligible. Pharmacies such as Meijer and Rite Aid also are scheduling vaccine appointments for people ages 65 and older, but run out of vaccine doses quickly.
More:Your COVID-19 vaccine questions answered: When am I eligible? How can I register?
And this week, bad weather snarled deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines to Michigan.
“Everyone who wants a vaccine, we want them to be able to get it,” Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state’s chief medical executive, told Michigan Radio earlier this week. She acknowledged it might take some time to get injections to everyone who wants them.
She advised people to go to Michigan.gov/covidvaccine to learn how to register for a COVID-19 vaccine near them.
“If you’re still having trouble signing up or you don’t have access to a computer, you can call 211, and they will be able to assist you in helping to find a place for you to get a vaccination,” Khaldun said.
The Free Press published a guide to getting a vaccine, which includes details by county as well as hospital systems and pharmacies:
Q: What’s going on with vaccine supply? How many doses of the COVID-19 vaccines is Michigan getting?
The federal government has boosted the state’s shipments of vaccines by about 20% each week since President Joe Biden took office, Khaldun said.
The state is expected to get 270,000 doses next week, said Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the state health department — up from 60,000 weekly doses in early January.
But those 270,000 doses have to be divided up among hospitals, health departments, pharmacies, tribal communities, federally qualified health centers and other administration sites.
And it’s important to remember that those doses have to be split up another way, too, into first- and second-dose allotments. Sutfin said about 157,000 will be earmarked as first doses and about 120,000 will be for second doses.
And it’s coming at a time when the state is also expanding eligibility. It announced it’s now adding mortuary workers to the list of people who can get a shot. And anybody 60 and older can get a vaccine if the place that’s offering the immunization has a plan that shows how it is removing barriers to vaccine access. And starting March 1, the state said it will allow agricultural workers to get shots.
The hope is that if the Johnson & Johnson one-dose COVID-19 vaccine is approved later this month for emergency use in the United States, it will boost supply more.
Also, President Joe Biden’s administration purchased 200 million additional doses from Pfizer and Moderna, which the White House has said will give the nation enough capacity to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of this summer.
Q: How soon will kids be able to get COVID-19 vaccines, and will it be safe to give children COVID-19 shots?
A: Right now, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is approved for use in kids 16 and older. Moderna’s vaccine is authorized for people ages 18 and older, but clinical trials are underway to see whether they can safely be given to younger kids.
Pfizer already has fully enrolled participants in its study of 12- to 15-year-olds and told ProPublica that it could have data soon on the outcomes.
Moderna is still enrolling participants in its trial for adolescents ages 12 to 18, and told ProPublica that it would have results in the middle of this year.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said trials among kids use a strategy known as age de-escalation. So the first round of trials will test the vaccines kids ages 12 and older. If that goes well, it’ll open up to younger kids, ages 9-12. And then 6-9.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has been advocating since September to enroll kids in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, arguing this research should have started much sooner than it did.
Dr. Shawn O’Leary, vice chair of the AAP’s committee on infectious diseases, told the Free Press in October that though it’s less common, kids are susceptible to severe illness and death from COVID-19, and can develop, albeit it rarely, a complication of coronavirus known as Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome-Children.
“Some people still have this misconception that kids aren’t affected at all,” he said, “and that is absolutely wrong. Kids absolutely can be severely affected by COVID-19 and we need to do everything we can to protect the entire population from getting this infection, including kids.”
The AAP suggests that if the trials show the vaccines are safe and effective to use in kids, it is possible they could be approved and available for at least some groups of children before school starts in the fall.
Q: I’ve heard that there could be vaccination passports in the future so people can safely travel again? Is that true?
A: This is a hot topic of conversation in Europe right now. The New York Times reported that Denmark’s government is rolling out a digital passport that shows vaccine status.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC that they’re inevitable as people want to get back to safely being able to travel the world.
When President Biden took office, one of his executive orders urged government agencies to consider whether it’s feasible to create digital coronavirus vaccine certificates/vaccination documents. So while nothing is official with this yet, it sounds as if the United States is exploring whether it’s a possibility.
Q: I have a loved one in a nursing home, and all the residents/staff at that nursing home got their vaccines. When will I be able to visit him again?
A: Sarah Lyon-Callo, the state epidemiologist, said Wednesday that she wasn’t able to comment on when the visitor restrictions for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in Michigan might change due to widespread vaccination.
“I’m not able to comment on the timing … of any changes that may be coming for nursing homes,” she said.
A statewide public health order restricts visitors at long-term care facilities. Visitors can be allowed if a nursing home or other long-term care facility meets all of the following criteria:
- The facility has had no new COVID-19 cases, including those involving residents or staff in the last 14 days and is not currently conducting outbreak testing.
- The facility is in a county where the current MI Safe Start Map risk level is considered low: categories A, B, C, or D: https://mistartmap.info/. (Outdoor visits are permitted in counties where the current risk level is E.)
- The local health department has not prohibited visitors at the facility.
With the exceptions of the Lansing and Jackson areas, most of the state is now at risk level D on the MI Safe Start Map, which means some visitation could be allowed if the long-term care facility meets all the other requirements. Details of all the restrictions are available here: .
Q: Why isn’t my community getting more doses of COVID-19 vaccines? It seems like others are getting more and we’re getting shorted.
A: Khaldun said state heath officials calculate the population of each community currently eligible for vaccination and “divide up the vaccines across the entire state based on that.”
But other criteria also factor in, she said, such as social disadvantages within a communities and health disparities. Using the CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index, officials also weigh such factors as race, educational attainment, how many people in an area have disabilities or are living in single-parent households or for whom English is a second language.
State health officials are trying to be intentional, Khaldun said, about ensuring people who don’t have access to transportation or the Internet or are disadvantaged in other ways also have access to vaccines.
“It’s really, really important … that hospitals, local health departments partner with community-based organizations, partner with faith-based organizations, have vaccination efforts at churches and other places in neighborhoods where people are familiar and where it’s close to their home,” Khaldun said. “That is how we’re really going to be able to address the equity issue and make sure that people have access.
“It’s not just about allocating vaccine across the state. It’s about that outreach which is really, really important as well.”
Contact Kristen Shamus: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @kristenshamus.
What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos
Pictures Credit
to request, modification Contact us at Here or [email protected]
 |
 |
 |
