COVID-19 is still present, even when it's not invited to the party.
Coronavirus likes to be at parties. It likes to socialize and jump from one person to another especially if the persons are too physically close with each other. Coronavirus likes to stay on surfaces, standby, and wait for a person to touch the surface. Now, when the person finally touches the surface with Coronavirus on it, Coronavirus will wait for the person to touch his/her face so that it can finally make its way inside that person's body.
Okay, so COVID-19 is still here, it seems like it's far from being eliminated due to its increasing susceptibility and its ability to change and form into different variants. We were already provided with the following ways to not get ourselves infected by the virus, all we need is to be them religiously (which we do btw for more than a year now).
Wash your hands with soap and water.
Maintain physical distancing.
Avoid touching your face.
Wear facemasks (and face shields, well here in the Philippines, we still do.)
Eat healthy foods.
Drink water and vitamins.
Disinfect.
Stay at home.
Despite doing these practices, COVID-19 is still here. What do we do aside from the true-blue proven, safe, and effective means of warding off the virus?
GET VACCINATED!
What are vaccines and why are they proven safe and effective?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "a vaccine stimulates your immune system to produce antibodies, exactly like it would if you were exposed to the disease. After getting vaccinated, you develop immunity to that disease, without having to get the disease first."
Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/vpd-vac-basics.html
Vaccines have been here for so long. The first-ever vaccine was that of Edward Jenner. He is often considered the father of vaccines because he was the first one to scientifically test a method to protect against smallpox. What he did in his method was to take material from a blister of a person with cowpox and inoculate it into another person's skin. This method underwent medical and technological changes over the next 200 years, and eventually resulted in the eradication of smallpox.
The rabies vaccine by Louis Pasteur was the next vaccine that has made a very large impact on human diseases. After which, due to the advancement of Science in the field of bacteriology, antitoxins and vaccines were created such as against diphtheria, tetanus, anthrax, cholera, plague, typhoid, tuberculosis, and more were developed.
Due to its safety and effectiveness, research has emerged for vaccine development and methods for growing viruses in the laboratory became popular that made rapid discoveries and innovations, one of which is the creation of the polio vaccine. Apart from this, researchers targeted to develop vaccines against other common childhood diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, among others.
How do vaccines work?
Developing a vaccine need thorough, accurate, and precise methods to be able to prevent a certain disease from spreading - and that's what scientists do!
To give you an idea about how vaccines work, here's a simple chart:
The vaccine contains a weakened, inactive or harmless disease agent. This vaccine will be injected into the person.
The receiver of the vaccine's immune systems will recognize that weakened, inactive or harmless disease agents, and will produce antibodies in response to what it has recognized.
If the receiver of the vaccine is infected later, his/her immune system is ready to fight off the disease/infection.
So, what's keeping people from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine? To encourage you to take the vaccine, here are some myths about it according to the CDC:
Myth: COVID-19 can alter one's DNA. This is not true as the vaccine does not interact with our DNA in any way. According to CDC, both the two types of COVID-19 vaccine (mRNA and viral vector COVID-19) "deliver instructions (genetic material) to our cells to start building protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the material never enters the nucleus of the cells, which is where the DNA is located.
Myth: COVID-19 vaccines make people magnetic. Not true, COVID-19 vaccines don't contain any materials/substance that "can produce electromagnetic field".
Myth: COVID-19 vaccine can prevent a woman from getting pregnant in the future. There are no studies showing that the COVID-19 vaccine causes problems with pregnancy or brings issues on fertility.
Myth: People vaccinated with COVID-19 can test positive on a viral test. Of course not, it will not cause you to test positive in viral tests. When we say viral tests, a.k.a. swab tests, which are done to be able to know if one is infected with the virus.
Myth: COVID-19 vaccine can make you sick with COVID-19. None of the authorized and recommended COVID-19 vaccines (at least the ones developed in the US) contain live Coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
If you are a medical health worker, senior citizen, have a co-morbidity condition like chronic respiratory disease, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and chronic kidney disease, then you are prioritized to receive the vaccine. Think about it, vaccines have been here for a very long time, and they are safe and effective. Yes, you might encounter news like some people are experiencing side-effects, but that's normal, and it's nothing compared to you suffering from the actual illness.
So, it's your choice. Do it for yourself, do it for the people around you. You may contact your local government unit for further information and assistance.
Thanks for reading!
