Reasons why the COVID-19 vaccine is recommended

As millions of Americans roll up their sleeves and receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we wanted to share our thoughts as both private citizens and the medical directors for the North Zone EMS response agencies.

We have both received the COVID-19 vaccine and want to encourage others to protect themselves, their family, and their community. One of the things we hear is “But, I am hesitant about receiving the vaccine.”

Consider this. The COVID-19 vaccine is safe. As of Feb. 27, Pfizer-BioNTech™, Moderna™, and Janssen™/Johnson & Johnson™(J&J) COVID-19 vaccines have received Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Over 145 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the United States from Dec. 14, 2020, through March 29, 2021.

The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and were evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials. The vaccines meet the FDA’s rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality and will continue to undergo the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.

This monitoring includes using both established and new safety monitoring systems to make sure that COVID-19 vaccines are safe.

Why should I get vaccinated? Do it for yourself, your family, and your community. When you are vaccinated against COVID-19, you protect yourself from a deadly disease. Vaccinate to stop the spread to your friends, your family, your elders, and the people who work hard to keep our communities safe and open.

Vaccination helps us get to community-wide protection, called herd immunity, much more quickly. When enough individuals become vaccinated, it adds up to protection for everyone. And, in case you didn’t know, the vaccination is administered at no charge to you.

What are the benefits of the vaccination? Benefits include reducing your chances of being hospitalized with COVID-19 to almost zero. You are much less likely to pass the disease to the elderly or those with medical conditions, who could get very sick or die. COVID-19 cases will drop, and schools and businesses will continue to safely reopen. We can get back to normal and put this pandemic in the rear-view mirror.

What to expect after getting the vaccine? Some people have no side effects. Others have reported common side effects after COVID-19 vaccination like swelling, redness and pain at injection site, fever, headache, tiredness, muscle pain, chills and nausea. This is more common after the second shot.

A tiny number of people have had a severe allergic reaction after vaccination, but this is extremely rare. If this occurs, vaccination providers have medicines available to effectively and immediately treat the reaction.

This is why after you get a COVID-19 vaccine, you will be asked to stay for 15–30 minutes so you can be observed in case you have a severe allergic reaction and provided treatment in the rare case it is needed.

Let’s all get vaccinated so that we can all get back to the things we love.

This is a joint release from North County Fire Protection District and Fallbrook Regional Health District.