Talking Points for Pharmacists
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Safety
The vaccines were tested in large clinical trials to make sure they meet safety standards. Clinical trial participants were recruited to see how the vaccines offer protection for people of different ages, races, and ethnicities, including those with different medical conditions.
I trust the vaccines are safe and effective because of the data. The available vaccines are highly effective against severe illness, hospitalization, and death due to COVID-19.
FDA and CDC closely monitor vaccine safety after the public begins using a vaccine to watch for possible side effects. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) allows anyone to submit a report, including parents, patients, and health care professionals. There’s also the V-safe After Vaccination Health Checker which is a smartphone-based tool that sends text messages and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you’ve been vaccinated.
To speed the process, COVID-19 vaccines went into production while they were still being tested for safety and effectiveness in clinical trials. This kept the vaccines safe but also made them available more quickly.
It is impossible to get COVID from any of the vaccines in use or in testing in the United States. None of these vaccines contains the live virus that causes COVID-19, so they cannot make you sick with the disease. The vaccines train our bodies to recognize the COVID virus and make cells that can destroy it, but they do not contain the virus.
Preventive measures
We need to do all we can to stop this pandemic. Get vaccinated as soon as you can.
Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people should wear a well-fitting mask inside public places when the COVID risk to your community is high.
If you’re at higher risk of getting very sick from COVID, you can also protect yourself by:
- Keeping at least 6 feet away from people who don’t live with you.
- Avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces.
- Washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or using hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol if you don’t have soap and water.
Everyone ages 6 months and older in the United States should get a COVID-19 vaccine. To stay safe, don’t let your guard down yet—stopping a pandemic means using all the tools available to us.
Benefits
It is much safer to get vaccinated and avoid contracting COVID-19. Your risk for serious health problems is much lower from the vaccine than your risk if you’re unvaccinated and get COVID-19. COVID-19 can leave you with heart and lung damage and other conditions that require long-term treatment. Vaccines are much safer paths to immunity than the disease itself. You can also pass COVID to others.
Recommending vaccination
I strongly recommend getting the vaccine to all my patients. I got/am getting mine because I trust the science that went into developing the vaccines and I trust the data from the clinical trials.
I strongly recommend you get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you can. It will reduce your risk of getting the disease and help protect you from getting seriously ill if you get COVID-19. Millions of people have already received the vaccines, so we’re headed in the right direction.
I strongly recommend getting the vaccine. I got/am getting it to protect myself, my friends, and my family. I’m doing it to get a step closer to being with the people I love.
The FDA has fully approved the following vaccines after thoroughly evaluating additional data on their safety and effectiveness and inspecting where and how they’re made:
- The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine for people 12 and older.
- The Moderna COVID vaccine for people ages 18 and older.
SAFETY IS THE TOP PRIORITYThe FDA and CDC have the highest standards when it comes to ensuring the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Their process includes the following procedures:
The extremely rare cases of blood clotting and Guillain-Barré Syndrome following Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine and heart inflammation following Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s vaccines—a very small number of cases out of millions of vaccinations—show that the FDA and CDC’s vaccine safety monitoring systems work and catch even the rarest reactions. Thorough investigations have confirmed that all currently available COVID-19 vaccines are safe and highly effective against severe illness, hospitalization, and death due to COVID-19. However, CDC recommends most people get the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Novavax vaccine. The monitoring systems ensure that doctors are notified to watch for signs of serious reactions, no matter how rare, and are aware of proper courses of treatment. |