CHAMPAIGN The stretch before New Years is usually a productive one for Black Dog Smoke and Ale House in downtown Champaign. Family and friends reunite there after returning to town for the holiday season.
Thats what owner Mike Cochran was gearing up for until he received calls, day and night, from employees whod gotten sick from COVID-19 or other illnesses.
Black Dog offered less seating, but it surprisingly met demand. Cochran said business was down 25 to 35 percent from what he expected last week probably from customers getting sick and being careful, he said.
When it comes to the pandemic and its effects, our crystal ball broke a long time ago, and the new one has been on back-order due to shipping delays, Cochran joked.
A new year has brought new precautions. State Farm Center is requiring vaccine or test to enter. Drivers facilities are closed for two weeks. The Esquire Lounge bar, with heavy hearts closed at 4 p.m. on New Years Eve.
A year out from the advent of several effective vaccines 204 million Americans, around 62 percent, have gotten their shots. Roughly 30 percent of those vaccinated have received a booster, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Yet the emergence of the delta and omicron variants in fall and winter, both known for their transmissibility, have wreaked havoc this holiday season.
Hours-long testing lines have snaked across the country, while states and counties, including Champaign, are setting new case records 21 months and change into the pandemic. COVID-19 patients majority unvaccinated are absorbing health-care resources.
Our health-care staff are exhausted and really feeling the strain of the surge in our community right now with more people than ever in our hospitals, emergency rooms and ICUs, said Carle Chief Medical Officer Dr. Charles Dennis. This can have a critical impact on our ability to deliver timely, non-COVID-19-related care, especially in our more rural locations.
So the question is: where do we go from here? What could the third calendar year of dealing with this virus have in store?
We asked Dennis and local epidemiologists Rebecca Smith and Awais Vaid to lay out their best- and worst-case scenarios for COVID-19 in 2022.
First, the hopeful: Omicron could burn itself out and prove to be less pathogenic, Smith said, and we could see cases lull near the start of spring.
Perhaps the emergency-use authorization to vaccinate the youngest children will be approved earlier than expected, and the Biden administrations proposed rollout of rapid tests will go smoothly and help contain spread, she added.
We are probably experiencing the worst-case scenario with the current wave, the pandemic however will end, said Vaid of the C-U public health district.
Conversely, the omicron spike could continue to grow if we throw caution to the wind. Despite its seemingly milder nature and widespread vaccination, the sheer volume of new cases could continue to overwhelm healthcare providers across the country.
Vaccinations could stagnate, Smith said, and a delay in vaccine authorization for young children may persist, leading to more cases and spread in schools and daycares.
A poor testing rollout, with technical glitches and/or low uptake, could combine with the CDCs new shortened asymptomatic isolation policy to result in more people working while infected, eventually shutting down businesses more due to sickness than would have been solely due to the 10-day isolation, Smith said.
Regardless of how the current surge pans out the last few COVID-19 spikes have petered within four to eight weeks endemic COVID-19, where cases remain in certain areas at a stable rate, will stay with us for a very long time, Vaid said.
In the short-term, vaccinations and boosters, indoor masking, testing and staying home, improved ventilation and personal hygiene are still our primary defense system. No variant so far has changed that.
Without everyones commitment to taking the preventative measures we know it will continue to be a challenge to stop the spread, Dennis said. We dont want to let this virus continue freely mutating and continuing to infect people and impact our way of life.
These days, Pastor Matt Matthews of First Presbyterian Church preaches behind a pane of Plexiglas, to a masked audience in the pews and dozens more watching a live-stream of the service at home.
He opts for it for the congregation members who are hearing-impaired, and wouldnt be able to understand him otherwise.
I look like the President behind bulletproof glass, he said. But change is the name of the game.
For other churches, businesses, schools and more, looking ahead has often proved to be a futile exercise.
On the recommendation of the churchs own COVID-19 response team, led by a retired doctor, First Presbyterian has vowed not to have congregation-wide dinners until cases are far lower or until people of all ages have access to a vaccine.
We want to include all our children, for us thats an extension and a natural part of our baptismal vows we take, Matthews said. We raise them in the faith and support them. We would not be doing that if we had a congregation-wide dinner, and exposed them to COVID.
The Stephens Family YMCA has had to adapt its exercise programming constantly to keep up with pandemic-era adjustments. Its mask mandate was temporarily lifted for fully vaccinated individuals, until cases rose again and state guidance changed.
Could more health precautions be on the way?
Obviously there are things being discussed like requiring vaccination for entry, vaccinating staff or testing, reservations for classes and pool usage, said Stephens YMCA CEO Jeff Scott. We arent excited about any of these options, but we will do them if it is absolutely necessary to help keep the community safe.
Rising cases havent quelled local interest in their facility: In the last 2 months, nearly 500 families have signed up for YMCA memberships. More aquatic classes were offered once it became clear that pool environments posed less of a risk for spread, Scott said.
Still, sports communities especially school teams are playing on pins and needles. Monticellos high school basketball and wrestling teams have managed to evade COVID-19 pauses or cancellations, but after this weeks tournaments? Who knows.
If you think back, we thought 1,200 cases in the state was a lot, and everyone was getting shut down, said Monticello Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Dan Sheehan. Now theres 22,000 cases, and its like, OK were playing basketball.
I wake up every day thinking Oh, great, were going to get an announcement, theres going to be some new statewide rules. You dont know whats coming next, and thats whats kind of scary.
Espresso Royale General Manager Aaron Bradley would usually be on break right now, if it werent for staff members at a different location testing positive and going into quarantine.
As a business, its about straddling that line between taking it very seriously and adapting to our new reality, Bradley said. We cant put the toothpaste back in the tube, the name of the game now is learning how to live in this world where COVID is a thing.
What hes concerned about, outside of the university community he usually serves, is how COVID-19 will continue to distort our information economy, or expose its flaws.
We cant move on to higher level problems, if were still talking about what two plus two equals, Bradley said. The pandemic wouldve been fixed if we didnt have this problem.
The grief of these last few years is incalculable. The virus has claimed more than 5 million lives worldwide, including more than 820,000 in the U.S.
Vaid, too, has lost close family and acquaintances to the virus. But even he can find reasons for optimism.
Our scientific community is collaborating and innovating at scale never imagined or done before in history, he said. We are much better prepared and have many more tools to respond as compared to March of 2020.
To some, the pandemic exposed cracks in institutions that needed upheavals.
There were some parts of our educational systems that needed to be changed in certain ways and benefited from the sense of urgency that our pandemic caused, said Franklin STEAM Academy Principal Sara Sanders, days before her school reopens.
Beyond health measures, officials across the board preached kindness. The mental health toll of this pandemic has been pervasive.
While we dont have the power to change what has happened, we do have the power to be humane to one another while we work through the debris of this pandemic, Sanders said.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas Local school districts have announced they are delaying the start of classes after Christmas because of a recent surge in coronavirus cases in their attendance areas.
Bishop, Driscoll and Kingsville all will return to school on Monday Jan. 10. Additionally, Freer ISD announced they will delay classes until Thursday.
Kingsville announced its decision on the following Facebook post. Students will be out all week and professional development for the staff will take place on Friday with a teacher workday from home on Thursday.
District officials also were insistent it wasn't considered an extension of the Christmas vacation.
"KISD is implementing a change to its calendar in an attempt to prevent the spread of COVID and allow those who have COVID to heal," the Facebook post said. "Note this is not extra vacation time, and it is not the time to be around large gatherings or shopping malls. It is a time to stop the spread of COVID and to heal from COVID."
Driscoll officials also made their announcement on Facebook on Sunday afternoon.
The post also noted that additional information regarding COVID-19 tests will be available soon.
And in Bishop, the rise of COVID-19 cases also was given as the reason for delaying classes in a post to parents.
"Due to the rising COVID-19 numbers in our school community, Bishop CISD will delay the return to school for students until January 10, 2022. If the inclement weather days built into the school calendar are not needed, students will not have to make up the days they miss this week. Otherwise, days used as a result of bad weather will be made up by students at the end of the school year."
Next up: the claim that vaccination is ineffective. If the booster shots work, why dont they work? tweeted Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.
What they were getting at, presumably, is the fact that Omicron is producing a number of breakthrough infections, while carefully ignoring the overwhelming evidence that even when vaccinated Americans do get infected they are far less likely than the unvaccinated to be hospitalized or die.
Finally, theres the claim that its all about freedom, that remaining unvaccinated should be treated simply as a personal choice. For example, the administration of Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has used that argument as the basis for a lawsuit seeking to block federal vaccine mandates. The Abbott administration has also appealed for federal aid to help Texas which has a strikingly low vaccination rate in part because Abbott has prevented private businesses from imposing vaccine requirements cope with a surge in Covid cases and hospitalizations. Need we say more?
Alert readers will have noticed that these Republican claims, in addition to being false, contradict one another in multiple ways. We can ignore Covid thanks to vaccines, which by the way dont work. Vaccination is a personal choice, but giving people the information they need to make that choice wisely is a vile attack on their dignity. Its all about freedom and free markets, but this freedom doesnt include the right of private businesses to protect their own workers and customers.
So none of this makes any sense not, that is, unless you realize that Republican vaccine obstructionism isnt about serving a coherent ideology, it was and is about the pursuit of power. A successful vaccination campaign would have been a win for the Biden administration, so it had to be undermined using any and every argument available.
Sure enough, the anti-vaccine strategy has worked politically. The persistence of Covid has helped keep the nations mood dark, which inevitably hurts the party that holds the White House so Republicans who have done all they can to prevent an effective response to Covid have not hesitated, even for a moment, in blaming Biden for failing to end the pandemic.
And the success of destructive vaccine politics is itself deeply horrifying. It seems that utter cynicism, pursued even at the cost of your supporters lives, pays.
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When the pandemic began, Mark Finazzo was working in a Columbus, Ohio, beer brewery, a job he lost to lockdown measures that plunged him, like many Americans, into terrifying months of isolation, anxiety and helplessness, with little more to do than watch the coronavirus rage across the TV news.
Today Mr. Finazzo, 35, is in his first semester at Ohio State University. He is getting his second bachelors degree, this one in microbiology, hoping to become a research scientist like the people striving to create a vaccine he watched and read about as he sat on his couch in the pandemics earliest, darkest days.
When I saw footage of hospital tents being erected in Central Park, it was like, Wow, life is fragile and precious, Mr. Finazzo said, referring to the field hospitals New York City mustered in the spring of 2020. I should probably do something to help out besides make a delicious poison that we like to drink.
The viruss toll cannot be overstated: It has stolen over 800,000 American lives, and millions globally. Efforts to thwart it have swept away livelihoods, altered childhoods, and left lasting emotional tolls. At the start of yet another year of Covid-19 in our midst, its latest variant rising, there is for many a sense of familiar foreboding.
But all along, in the valley of the shadow of the virus, there has been remarkable resilience. It can be seen in the lightning-fast creation of vaccines that have largely defanged Covid-19, and in recent findings that the methods used now may show promise in the fight against H.I.V. and AIDS. It is in every pivot made by a canny entrepreneur that saved a business, and each government agency that pushed innovative change during chaotic times.
And it is in individuals, like Mr. Finazzo, who in the face of seismic societal shifts have not shattered, but shifted too.
The experience of the pandemic has shown we are more resilient than conventional wisdom would suggest, said George A. Bonanno, a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University Teachers College and author of The End of Trauma, a book about the psychology of human resilience.
And while many continue to grapple with grief and trauma, the key to resilient outcomes in the face of disaster is threefold, Dr. Bonanno said: First, distill exactly what is causing distress, then come up with a possible solution. Finally, remain flexible to find a new remedy if that doesnt work.
I see time and time again that people are resilient, he said. The pandemic has shown this in spades.
In the field of medicine, the onslaught of the sick stretched thin hospitals and burned out many medical professionals. But it has also revolutionized some parts of the field, said Dr. Rita A. Manfredi, a clinical professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and a co-author of The silver linings of COVID-19: Uplifting effects of the pandemic in Academic Emergency Medicine, a medical journal.
One example: telemedicine, which officials greatly expanded permissions for during the pandemic, made getting care easier for many people, Dr. Manfredi said. It is likely here to stay.
In any big tragedy, there is always a positive side, Dr. Manfredi said. The negative side is obvious, but there is always a positive side.
The coronavirus vaccine itself, made under wartime conditions, may go on to fight other intractable diseases: A study published in December successfully used the same mRNA technology used by the coronavirus vaccine to reduce the infection risk of an H.I.V.-like virus in rhesus macaques perhaps a glimmer of hope in the fight against AIDS.
This is a promising new finding, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and co-author of the study, said in an interview.
We are infinitely better off now than we were in 2020, Dr. Fauci continued. If this were 2020 and we had this kind of a surge of Omicron superimposed upon a Delta surge we would likely have had to shut down the entire country, because we would have no other tools to prevent the spread. Now, we feel we can continue to function as a society.
He added: Things will get better. It is not going to go on forever.
For some people with disabilities, cultural shifts the pandemic forced, like flexible and remote work for which they long advocated have already improved their lives: The employment rate for disabled people is currently at an all-time high, though still profoundly below that of people without disabilities, according to the nonprofit Kessler Foundation, which tracks data that relates to people with disabilities.
For Jon Novick, who has achondroplastic dwarfism, office settings can be burdensome. Mr. Novick, 30, said his small stature is not accommodated by standard-issue chairs and desks. Because of his physique, he must get business-professional attire customized, often at an extra expense. In the fall, he got a new job at a Manhattan-based creative agency, but is able to work from his apartment in Astoria, Queens.
I am living in a world that is not quite built for me, Mr. Novick said. My perfect office is my home.
The benefit comes alongside frustration for many disabled people like him, that it took a pandemic to make something their community has long pushed for and was frequently denied into a norm.
People with disabilities can contribute so much to the work force; we can contribute even more when the playing field is level, Mr. Novick said.
Changed habits forced entire metropolises to change: To give residents of hard-hit New York City space to mingle at a social distance, in May 2020 the citys Department of Transportation began temporarily closing streets to cars at over 250 locations. The program has faced criticism that the street closures create traffic and take away parking spaces. But for many, the open streets, as they are known, were a welcome new use for the citys thousands of miles of pavement when they were cooped up at home. The program is now permanent.
On 120th Street in Harlem, Tressi Colon, a retired New York Police Department sergeant, helps oversee programming on the open street that includes al fresco community suppers and free lectures from neighbors who work in academia on topics like gentrification. We were intentional that in the midst of this pandemic that something good will come out of it, Ms. Colon said. That was the key.
Across many industries, necessity forced norms to change, often for the better. In the fashion world, where resale was once a synonym for used or unwanted clothing and unsold merchandise sometimes burned, the clogging of supply chains and growing conversation around sustainability caused some designers to reuse fabrics long abandoned on storeroom shelves.
Burberry, for example, which before the pandemic got in trouble when it was revealed in 2018 that it incinerated approximately $37 million of unsold product, has now partnered with a luxury rental and resale platform to put its stamp of approval on older garments and accessories sourced from customers, rather than lose them to the secondhand market or let them be thrown away. For her spring 2022 collection, the French designer Marine Serre, a champion of upcycling, made old tabletop linens, toweling and even cutlery into neat suiting and jewelry that was one of the hits of Paris Fashion Week.
Book sales rose during the pandemics first year of lockdown, but today, even with schools open and more options for entertainment, reading habits seem to have stuck: From January to November 2021, sales of consumer books increased 13 percent over the same period the year before, according to the Association of American Publishers. At least 172 new independent bookstores opened in 2021, the American Booksellers Association said.
When Jason Innocent was furloughed from his job as a restaurant kitchen manager, he began to read for pleasure for the first time in his adult life, powering through 1984, Macbeth, A Raisin in the Sun and more. Now back at work, he kept the habit plus practicing new words he reads. A few days before the New Year, Mr. Innocent, 26, stood in a line in downtown Manhattan waiting for a coronavirus test, studying vocabulary.
A lot of people, the pandemic made them upset, but I took a bad situation and turned it into a positive, Mr. Innocent said, flicking through his vocabulary list. Even if another shutdown happened, Im going to find a way to survive.
After watching a television segment on new technology to sterilize N95 masks to combat a national shortage, Mr. Finazzo, the former brewery worker, applied for a job with the company. The satisfaction of helping out cemented his growing interest in a career in science.
I was thinking to myself: Would I want to go and tell my kids or grandkids that I survived the Covid pandemic of 2020 by sitting alone in my apartment getting drunk? Mr. Finazzo said. Or did I want to go and utilize this opportunity to be able to help people?
Vanessa Friedman and Elizabeth A. Harris contributed reporting.
Illinois leaders urge vaccinations as hospitalizations continue to surge
CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago will require proof of a COVID-19 vaccine for indoor venues starting Monday.
That includes restaurants, bars, gyms and other indoor venues like sport entertainment arenas.
READ MORE: Pritzker to provide COVID-19 update Monday. Here's how you can watch
The rules apply to everyone age 5 and older, but doesn't apply to those in the venue less than 10 minutes, like those getting takeout.
Also starting Monday, all Illinois Secretary of State offices, including driver services, will be closed until at least Jan. 18.
The country is seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases to the highest levels on record.
Also, Gov. J.B. Pritzker is urging Illinois hospitals to delay elective surgeries and non-emergency procedures to keep more beds open, anticipating a wave of COVID-19 patients.
Getting the vaccineWhy should I get vaccinated?
For those in the ASU community, ASU Health ServicesandEmployee Healthhave COVID-19 vaccines, third doses and boosters available.
Students can make appointments by going to theASU Health Portal; ASU Health Services has the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines available.
ASU employees can make appointments throughEmployee Health; Employee Health has the Moderna vaccine only.
All COVID-19 vaccines are widely available across pharmacies, supermarkets and medical providers. To find a convenient location near you to get a COVID-19 vaccine dose or booster, please visitvaccines.gov/searchorazdhs.gov/FindVaccine. You can also call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489).
Refer to theCDCorFDAfor the most current information on the COVID-19 vaccine dose, and booster details and timing; all university employees are eligible for the COVID-19 booster.
For the most part, yes (see below forexceptions). The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionrecommendthat everyone be offered thevaccine, regardless of whether they have been infected. It is unclear how long natural immunity lasts after someone recovers from an infection.
There isguidanceon exceptionsfrom the CDC on the following:
Those with known current COVID-19 infection:Vaccination should be deferred until the person has recovered from the acute illness (if the person had symptoms) and criteria have been met for them to discontinue isolation. This recommendation applies to people who develop a COVID-19 infection before receiving any vaccine doses, as well as those who develop an infection after the first dose but before receipt of the second one.
Those with known COVID-19 exposure:Vaccination is unlikely to be effective in preventing disease after an exposure because the median incubation period of COVID-19 is four to five days, it is unlikely that the first dose of the vaccine would provide an adequate immune response within the incubation period for effective post-exposure prophylaxis (that is, vaccination to prevent the development of COVID-19). People in the community or outpatient setting who have had a known COVID-19 exposure should not seek vaccination until their quarantine period has ended to avoid potentially exposing health care personnel and other persons during the vaccination visit.
Those who have received passive antibody therapy(that is, who have received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma from individuals who have recovered from an infection): Based on the estimated half-life of such therapies as well as evidence suggesting that reinfection is uncommon in the 90 days after initial infection, vaccination should be deferred for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information becomes available, to avoid potential interference of the antibody therapy with vaccine-induced immune responses. This recommendation applies to people who receive passive antibody therapy before receiving any vaccine doses as well as those who receive passive antibody therapy after the first dose but before the second dose, in which case the second dose should be deferred for at least 90 days following receipt of the antibody therapy.
There is no recommended minimum interval between other antibody therapies not specific to COVID-19 treatment (e.g., intravenous immunoglobulin, RhoGAM) and vaccination.
No. Please stay home and reschedule when you are well. Its important to protect the health of the distribution-site staff, as well as other people receiving the vaccine.
No. Your second vaccination needs to be the same vaccine brand as your first (Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech).
You will need to be observed for 30 minutes after your vaccine dose, rather than the standard 15 minutes.
Consult with your health care provider. If you are on blood thinners, you will need to wait 30 minutes under observation at the vaccination site after receiving your vaccine.
Consult with your OB/GYN and/or pediatrician before receiving any COVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine is free to everyone living in the United States. You do not need to have health insurance. You do not need to be a U.S. citizen.
No. If you have health insurance, you will be asked to enter your information during the vaccine registration.
Yes time to take the vaccine is considered working time. Employees should try to take it during working hours. Time away from work should be coordinated with and approved by the supervisor with as much notice as possible.
Time should be recorded as regular working time for hourly employees even if it is taken on a weekend and results in overtime. FFCRA pay codes should not be used to account for time to take a vaccine.
For assistance with time reporting questions, contact OHR Partners.
There is no upper age limit for any of the vaccines.
As of November 2021, the Pfizer vaccine has received emergency-use authorization for children as young as 5. The lower age limit for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnsons vaccines is 18.
Yes. ASU does not have access to ADHS records regarding who received the vaccine. To assist in our efforts to manage COVID-19 vaccinations in the ASU community, we are asking those individuals who have been vaccinated touploadtheir vaccination records; the information is kept secure. Employees, including student employees, can do so here; all other students can do so through the Health Portal.
International students can get the vaccine while in the U.S., and it is recommended that they get the vaccine as soon as they are able to.
No. They should bring verification of vaccination with them so that the vaccination site knows which shot they need. You cannot mix vaccine brands, however. ASU cannot guarantee that if someone gets a certain vaccine elsewhere that the same brand will be available here.
The U.S. will only distribute vaccines that have been approved as effective and have received emergency-use designation. Other countries may be using the same or different vaccines, as there are numerous available globally.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is covered in a crown, or corona, of spike proteins that give coronaviruses their name. The viruses use these spike proteins like keys to get into human cells.
The vaccines train our immune systems to recognize these spike proteins and prepare to defend against them.
There are currently two types of COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. adenovirus and messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. Both types use the viruss genetic instructions for building spike proteins to provoke an immune response.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine contains a common virus called an adenovirus. The virus has been reprogrammed so that it cant replicate or make you sick. Instead, it carries DNA with instructions for the coronaviruss spike protein.
When your cells absorb the adenovirus, they copy the instructions for the spike protein into messenger RNA molecules. The cells use this mRNA like a blueprint to start building spike proteins. The spike proteins make their way to the outside of the cell, where your immune system recognizes them as intruders and mobilizes an immune response.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines work in a similar way, but they skip the adenovirus step. Instead of having your cells build the mRNA from DNA, these vaccines give you the mRNA directly.
In both types of vaccines, the genetic instructions are destroyed after use, like a self-destructing Mission Impossible message. However, the antibodies created by your immune system remain. If youre exposed to the coronavirus in the future, your body will recognize the spike protein trying to invade your cells and deploy antibodies in defense.
They are working extremely well.
The intended benefit of the vaccines was to prevent serious illness and death. They are excellent at doing that, says Josh LaBaer, MD, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at ASU.
Although the delta variant is causing more breakthrough infections among vaccinated people than before, the vaccines are still protecting against severe illness. In Arizona, for example, unvaccinated people make up 99.5% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 99.7% of deaths.
Far and away, all three vaccines are doing an excellent job at preventing hospitalizations and deaths. Thats true everywhere, not just in Arizona, LaBaer says.
Common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines include fever, chills, fatigue, headache, and pain and swelling at the injection site.But those side effects are short-lived and not cause for concern.
That's a great sign. Symptoms show that your body is creating an immune response to COVID, saysHeather Ross, a clinical assistant professor in ASUs Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and School for the Future of Innovation in Society. She participated in the Moderna vaccine clinical trial in summer 2020.
After the first dose, my arm was pretty sore and I had a headache, but not anything serious. After my second dose, about eight hours after the shot I had a fever, I felt super tired and pretty grumpy for about 30 hours. And then I was fine, she says.
I do tell people, vaccination symptoms are a hell of a lot better than getting sick with COVID. I have students, healthy young people, who are still getting short of breath when they try to exert themselves, months after recovering. It can be really, really disabling. Weve seen people getting strokes after the fact from having COVID. It's really scary stuff.
There have been some extremely rare, more severe side effects from the vaccines. These include allergic reactions, blood clots after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescents/young adults after the mRNA vaccines.Get up-to-date information about reported side effects here.
It is important to remember that your risk of catching and dying from COVID-19 is far higher than the risk of any of these side effects.
Consult with your doctor before receiving your second dose.
Yes, employees who have side effects can use sick leave.
No. There are no known long-term effects from the COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S.
More than 356 million doses have been given under the most intense safety monitoring in our countrys history. Anyone can report reactions through theVaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. The CDC, Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies investigate these reports thoroughly. They have not found any long-term problems caused by the COVID-19 vaccines.
This matches what we know about vaccines in general.
The overwhelming majority of vaccine side effects show up within two months, saysAnna Muldoon, who holds a masters degree in public health and is a PhD student in the School for the Future of Innovation and Society. People don't get weird effects from a vaccine 10 years later. The body doesn't work like that.
I don't worry so much about long-term negative consequences, because we know they are really nonexistent in vaccines. And there's no reason to believe that this vaccine is going to be different from any others, adds Bertram Jacobs, a professor of virology with the School of Life Sciences and a researcher in the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines and Virotherapy.
On the other hand, COVID-19 is known to have serious, long-term health risks.
Between 15% to 60% of people have long-term side effects of the virus, even people who had mild or asymptomatic infections, says Josh LaBaer, MD, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at ASU. Brain fog, memory problems, respiratory problems, gastrointestinal problems these are showing up more and more. We now know in no uncertain terms that this virus gets into the brain.
If youre worried about long-term side effects, theres much more case for having them from the virus than from the vaccine. Its naive to assume that when you get over the virus youre done with it, he adds.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines contain messenger RNA (mRNA), lipids and saline solutions. The single active ingredient mRNA is contained within a protective bubble of lipids. The saline solutions in the two vaccines are used commonly in medications and vaccines and serve to keep the pH and salt levels of the mixture close to those in the human body. Both vaccines are essentially genetic material wrapped in a bubble of fat suspended in salt water.
The full ingredients of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are: messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), four lipids: SM-102; polyethylene glycol (PEG) 2000 dimyristoyl glycerol (DMG); cholesterol; 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DSPC); and the saline solutions comprised of tromethamine, tromethamine hydrochloride, acetic acid, sodium acetate, and sucrose.
The full ingredients of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are: messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA), four lipids: (4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate); 2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide; 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine and cholesterol; and a saline solution of potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine contains a modified adenovirus with coronavirus DNA, as well as various stabilizers, alcohol for sterilization, an anticoagulant, an emulsifier to hold the ingredients together and salt.
The full ingredients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are: recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus type 26 expressing the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, citric acid monohydrate, trisodium citrate dihydrate, ethanol, 2-hydroxypropyl--cyclodextrin (HBCD), polysorbate-80 and sodium chloride.
Polyethylene glycol, or PEG, is a petroleum-derived compound thats found in everything from medicine and food to cosmetics and industrial products. PEG is in both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, where its used as a stabilizing agent for the mRNA.
Its used in the vaccines to make sure the active component doesn't fall apart, dry up, degrade or become unusable until it gets delivered to the body, says Biodesign Institute Executive Director Josh LaBaer. Its used in all kinds of substances that we take all the time. Generally speaking, the vast majority of people have no problem with polyethylene glycol, but there are individuals that have allergic reactions to PEG.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not contain PEG, but it does contain polysorbate. A small number of people are allergic to polysorbate.
If you have a history of severe allergic reactions, check theCDC guidelinesto see if you should receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
No. The flu shot does not protect against COVID-19.
Health experts urge people to get their annual flu shot in addition to the COVID-19 vaccine. Especially with so many hospitals at capacity, it's best to do everything possible to prevent either illness.
Its possible. Breakthrough infections cases of COVID-19 in vaccinated people are rare. However, there has been an increase in breakthrough infections from the delta variant. Delta is now the dominant form of the virus in the U.S.
First, no vaccine is perfect. We know that some percent of people dont mount as strong an immune response, says Josh LaBaer, MD, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at ASU.
However, there is another reason why the delta variant may be causing more breakthrough infections.
One of the characteristics of delta is that it is better at elbowing all the other variants out of the way, LaBaer says.
It does this by reproducing very quickly at the beginning of an infection possibly 1,000 times faster than other variants. This early period is also when people are most contagious.
Vaccines produce antibodies that fight the virus. Over time, the antibodies decrease, but our immune systems also have memory B cells that remember how to make them. When memory B cells are exposed to the virus, they start making more antibodies, but this can take a few days.
There is some evidence that people with breakthrough delta infections have high levels of virus at the start, before their B cells kick in and get the virus under control. That may be why vaccinated people tend to have mild cases their memory B cells churn out antibodies before the infection gets out of control. But they could be contagious before this happens.
No.
While the vaccines contain genetic material (mRNA), they have no effect on our DNA. These messenger RNA vaccines, or mRNA, simply deliver instructions to our immune cells to make a single protein from the coronavirus. Once the protein is created, those instructions are broken down and the protein piece is displayed on the surface of a cell. Our immune systems recognize that it doesnt belong and make antibodies in defense, mirroring the natural immune response to an infection.
The mRNA does not remain in the body. Its disposed of once it delivers its instructions and does not impact our DNA.
It is unknown if the COVID-19 vaccines will protect against new strains of SARS-CoV-2. Preliminary research suggests that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will provide protection against the more infectious strain first detected in the United Kingdom.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines prompt the body to create antibodies tailored to the viruss spike protein, and new strains of the coronavirus are exhibiting changes to that region.
Scientists dont think those changes will be enough to prevent the vaccine from working. What we might see, though, is instead of being 95% effective, maybe the vaccines are 80% effective or 70% effective against the new strains, says Bertram Jacobs, a professor of virology with ASUs School of Life Sciences and a researcher in the Biodesign Institute's Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines and Virotherapy.
While diminished efficacy is a concern, Jacobs says both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines can be quickly adapted to protect against emerging strains.
It is worth noting that even though the vaccines have not yet been formally tested on the variants, they are still proving effective when measured in geographical areas that have high rates of variants, adds Biodesign Institute Executive Director Josh LaBaer, pointing to the Johnson & Johnson clinical trial in South Africa.
In the trial, 92% of sequenced cases were the more infectious South African variant of the virus, though the vaccine proved effective in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 73% of the time at 14 days and 82% at 28 days.
My guess is that the vaccines are going to be effective for a long time, says LaBaer. I'm hopeful, because this is not like the flu virus, which constantly changes its look and its antigens. This virus doesn't change that fast, and the vaccines seem to be pretty broadly effective.
After the vaccine
Continued safety protocols
Yes, if you have symptoms or have been exposed to someone who tested positive. Vaccination is not a golden ticket to never worry about the coronavirus again. The risk of infection is reduced, but not eliminated. And until a greater proportion of the population is vaccinated, testing is a way of making sure people aren't asymptomatically carrying the virus.
Biodesign Institute Executive Director Josh LaBaer, who has been vaccinated, gets tested when the situation calls for it.
If I'm going to be near somebody who hasn't been vaccinated or I travel, or Im heading to an in-person meeting, I'll get tested, he says.
ASU offers free, saliva-based PCR testing on all campuses and throughout Arizona.Find a free COVID-19 test near you.
Its important to continue to get tested. If youve recently received a COVID-19 vaccine, this will not affect your COVID saliva test result. You will still receive an accurate test result.
The saliva test measures the virus itself its genetic material, its RNA and does not have anything to do with the immune system. So nothing about the vaccination would affect that kind of test. If someone is currently infected with virus, whether or not they have been vaccinated, ASU's saliva test will work.
Because the virus changed.
The delta variant is now the main form of the coronavirus in the U.S. It behaves differently than the original virus. Delta is infecting more vaccinated people, and there is evidence that those people can spread the virus.
Vaccinated people are not likely to get severely ill from COVID-19, even from the delta variant. But if they spread the virus to someone who isnt vaccinated, that person could become very sick or die. Vaccinated people should wear masks around others to avoid passing along the virus.
Public health experts change their guidance when situations change, or when we learn new information. During a crisis like a pandemic, people need information quickly about a threat we dont fully understand. We should expect that guidance will change as we learn more and should be prepared to check reliable sources of information regularly.
Getting vaccinated helps us reach herd immunity, which refers to when most of a population is immune to a disease either through vaccination or previous infection. It provides indirect protection to those who arent immune. The percentage of immune people in a population needed to reach herd immunity varies for different diseases and is unknown for COVID-19.
In addition, it is not currently known if the vaccine eliminates asymptomatic infection and transmission. That means those close to you who get vaccinated might still be able to pass along the coronavirus to you, even if it doesn't affect them.
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The vaccination requirement allows for students and employees to seek an exemption based on medical or religious grounds, as defined below:
Medical Exemption: due to a medical (including mental health) condition for which an approved vaccine presents a significant risk of a serious adverse reaction. Any medical exemption must be verified by a certified or licensed healthcare professional and submitted to the university.
Religious Exemption: due to either (i) a persons sincerely held religious belief, observance, or practice, which includes any traditionally recognized religion, or (ii) beliefs, observances, or practices which an individual sincerely holds and that occupy a place of importance in that individuals life, comparable to that of traditionally recognized religions. Anyone seeking a religious exemption must provide a statement to the university that describes the applicable religious or other comparable belief that is the basis for their exemption.
Guest students: (those not in an admitted status with the university and enrolled through Extension and International Programs) must be immunized and document Covid-19 vaccine status to participate in any in-person or hybrid courses or activities.There are no exemptions for this constituency. However, guest students may opt out of documenting Covid-19 vaccine status to participate in fully online courses and activities by being required to attest they will not access any CSUF facilities, activities, or instruction in person.
Visit the Request for Vaccination Exemption webpage for more information on obtaining an exemption.
