The dangers of contracting COVID-19 outweigh the side effects of vaccination. Vaccines reduce a person’s risk of contracting COVID-19 infection but, most importantly, they reduce your chances of getting severe disease and or dying from COVID-19.

Vaccination keeps you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19; it helps you protect people around you, particularly people at increased risk for severe illness. Long-term benefits include disease containment. However, one still needs to adhere to all stipulated COVID-19 protocols; this includes the wearing of masks etc..

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), once you are fully vaccinated you can resume many activities that you did before the pandemic. In a recent study, however, the CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people continue to wear a mask in public indoor settings if they are in an area of substantial or high transmission.

According to the CDC, COVID-19 vaccines are recommended for people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future. Pregnant and recently pregnant people are more likely to get severely ill than non-pregnant people. Getting the vaccine can protect you from severe illness.

Recent reports have shown that pregnant women who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 have antibodies during their third trimester and pass the antibodies on to their foetuses, which could help protect them after birth.

Like any vaccine, COVID-19 vaccines can cause mild, short-term side effects, such as a low-grade fever, or pain or redness at the injection site. Most reactions to vaccines are mild and go away within a few days on their own. More serious or long-lasting side effects to vaccines are possible but extremely rare. Vaccines are continually monitored by the Regulator for as long as they are in use, to detect rare adverse events and implement approaches to limit their occurrence. ^[1]

No, you should not take a blood thinner unless your healthcare provider has prescribed that medication to treat an existing health condition. COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people taking blood thinners, but you should let the person giving you the vaccine know about any medication you are taking beforehand. ^[2]

Yes, but the risk is much, much lower than for persons who have not received the vaccine. There are two scenarios where a person could get COVID-19 after receiving a vaccine:

• A person may have been exposed to COVID-19 within 10-14 days before receiving the vaccine. When the vaccine is given, they are in the ‘incubation period’ (similar to a ‘window’ period). At the time that the vaccine is given, the person does not have symptoms, but symptoms such as cough, fever, headache and body aches and pains develop with 7-10 days of receiving the vaccine. If COVID-like symptoms occur and persist (i.e. they stay or get worse) during the 7-10 days after getting the vaccine, a person should see a medical practitioner immediately.
• A person may develop a ‘breakthrough infection’ at any time (weeks, months or years) after the vaccine. The vaccine trials have shown us that there are ‘breakthrough’ infections after all types of vaccinations against SARS-CoV-2. But breakthrough infections occur much less frequently in persons who have been vaccinated, and these infections are usually mild-to-moderate and don’t require admission. Trials published to date show that vaccine effectiveness ranges from 65% to 95%. An excellent summary of current evidence showing how effective COVID-19 vaccines are may be found on the CDC website.^[3]

People are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech, or Moderna vaccines or two weeks after a single dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine. There are good data emerging to show that breakthrough asymptomatic infections (COVID-19 infections following vaccination) are uncommon within 10 days (1 in 100) after one dose, and extremely uncommon (1 in 1000) after two doses of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna vaccines). The infections following vaccination are usually mild and do not require hospitalisation. ^[4]

Even if you have already had COVID-19, you should be vaccinated when it is offered to you. The vaccine should be taken 30-35 days after the COVID-19 Infection period is over. Please discuss with your health service practitioner. The protection that someone gains from having COVID-19 will vary from person to person, and at this stage we also don’t know how long natural immunity might last. ^[5]

The effectiveness of the vaccine is not dependent on any food or drink before or after taking the vaccine. ^[6]

No, the vaccine will not cause a positive COVID-19 PCR or antigen laboratory test result. This is because the tests check for active disease and not whether an individual is immune or not. However, because the COVID-19 vaccine prompts an immune response, it may be possible to test positive in an antibody (serology) test that measures COVID-19 immunity. ^[7]

The South African government has chosen to wait an interval of 42 days between the first and second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. This decision was taken after evidence showed that older patients who delay the second dose of mRNA vaccines have a much stronger immune response.^[8]

Yes. The two-dose Pfizer vaccine has been shown to reduce a person’s risk of being hospitalised with COVID-19 caused by the new variant by 94% after just one dose. Data from the United Kingdom’s health department show that this protection increases to 96% when someone receives both doses of the jab required to be fully vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.^[9]

Recent local J&J study results indicate good protection against the Delta variant. More studies are needed to assess the effectiveness of current COVID-19 vaccines against the variants. A growing body of data suggests that most vaccines stimulate enough immunity to retain substantial efficacy against most variants, especially for severe disease, hospitalisation and death. The impact of the variants on efficacy against mild disease and against infection without disease is more impacted than the more severe outcomes.^[10]

Allergic reactions to any kind of medicine are usually ‘specific’ to that kind of medicine. In other words, an allergy to one kind of medicine does not mean that a person will be allergic to all medicines, or all vaccines. So, if a person is allergic to penicillin, for example, they can still receive a COVID-19 vaccine without fear of an allergic reaction.^[11] Please discuss your allergy with your health service provider.

The South African government has indicated that pregnant women may be vaccinated when the benefit of vaccinating (e.g. health workers at high risk of exposure or pregnant women with co-morbidities) outweighs the potential vaccine risks. SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials excluded pregnant woman from participation so there are fewer data on vaccine safety during pregnancy. However, as the vaccine has been rolled out, women who did not know they were pregnant were vaccinated. Their experiences are being monitored globally, even in South Africa. To date, no negative effects have been reported. It is helpful to know that all COVID-19 vaccines that have been rolled out were tested on pregnant animals and no adverse effects were reported. The WHO does not recommend pregnancy testing before COVID-19 vaccination.^[12]