People still have a lot of questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge is working to answer as many as possible.
READ: More answers to COVID-19 questions
”Can the vaccine help with the lingering side effects of having the virus?”
Unfortunately, the answer is no. We aren’t completely sure what factors are involved in some people having prolonged symptoms of a coronavirus infection.
”Have there been a significant number of deaths from getting a vaccine and if so, why are they not being reported?”
Now that more than 50 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine in the United States,
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published data that has been collected in the V-safe monitoring system and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
From Dec. 14-Jan. 13, more than 13 million vaccine doses were administered. During that time, there were 518 serious events who received the vaccine who were not long term care facility residents. Of those 518 people, there were 35 deaths -- 16 after the Pfizer vaccine and 19 after the Moderna vaccine.
A review of 16 of the reported deaths indicated underlying heart disease, cancer, stroke, probably pulmonary embolism and otherwise frail health as the cause of death. The remaining 19 are still being investigated.
However, the monitoring systems cannot identify a cause and effect relationship without investigation, but that’s still very small number of deaths among the millions of vaccine doses administered, roughly 0.00003%.
”If we are already vaccinated with both shots, do you recommend wearing double masks or will single mask be sufficient?”
Double masking reduces the amount of respiratory droplets that are both inhaled and breathed out. If someone is fully vaccinated, the odds of being infected or asymptomatically spreading the virus is dramatically reduced.
At that point, it becomes a question of personal values.
MORE: Questions about coronavirus (COVID-19)? Ask Dr. McGeorge