AUSTIN, Texas — The updated COVID-19 vaccines are designed to protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19 and help reduce the spread of the virus in communities, which helps reduce risks for the most vulnerable populations, according to a Texas medical expert.
Contracting COVID-19 can have serious, long-lasting health effects, as COVID-19 symptoms are unpredictable. According to health experts, those who contract COVID-19 can have symptoms for months after recovery, regardless of age or health status. Even mild cases of COVID-19 can leave individuals with symptoms long after contraction. However, long-term impacts from vaccines are highly unlikely.
Dr. Neil Wingkun is an emergency room physician at Houston Methodist Hospital and explained that the previous vaccine was for the first strain of COVID-19. The newest vaccine is bivalent, and vaccines like Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax are mostly targeting the current virus we're seeing now.
"The dangers of COVID are still very real. People are dealing not only with the acute respiratory effects, but people have noticed that they've had difficulty breathing. They had the typical fevers and the muscle aches, but especially in our elderly population, those who are what we call immunocompromised, those folks whose immune system doesn't work as well, some of those folks still get hospitalized and we still see in some cases, those those patients don't do so well," explained Wingkun.
Dr. Wingkun said people can receive their updated vaccine and flu shot at the same time and the side effects to receiving their vaccines are mostly mild.
"We do see that folks do have some soreness in the arm. I know I had that for myself, soreness of the arm, generalized body aches, feeling a little bit tired the next day," said Wingkun. "But those [are] for one day as compared to having these really extreme effects, as well as hospitalization, or the effects of having long-term COVID is far more worse than having the minimal side effects of getting any sort of vaccine."
According to health officials and the Center for Disease Control guidelines, it's recommended for those that are immunocompromised, especially in crowded areas, to take precautions and wear a mask to keep themselves safe.
"We know that even with the first vaccine, there was some coverage. But now that we have this new bivalent vaccine, it definitely helps us to give some more coverage. I think as we see if the virus evolves and how the disease progression goes about, we may need more vaccines and more boosters, but at this point, it doesn't seem like there is right now," said Wingkun.
Health professionals stress that getting the COVID-19 vaccines doesn't mean you can't still get COVID-19. Rather, it prevents people from getting severe side effects afterwards or hospitalization.
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