Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Lengthy Island Jewish Medical Middle, is inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester. Mark Lennihan/Pool by way of Getty Photos

Editor’s Observe: With a coronavirus vaccination effort now underway, you may need questions on what this implies for you and your loved ones. Should you do, ship them to The Dialog, and we’ll discover a doctor or researcher to reply them. Right here, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a public well being pediatrician whose analysis uncovered the Flint, Michigan, water disaster, solutions questions concerning the vaccine and allergy symptoms, and when youngsters may be capable of get the vaccine.

If I’ve allergy symptoms, ought to I nonetheless get the vaccine?

When you’ve got a historical past of allergy symptoms to meals, pets, bugs or different issues, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recommends that you just proceed with vaccination, with an commentary interval. When you’ve got a historical past of extreme allergic response, or what known as anaphylaxis, to a different vaccine or injectable remedy, your physician can do a threat evaluation, defer your vaccination, or proceed after which observe you after vaccination. The one motive to keep away from vaccination is a extreme allergic response to any part of the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC has particular suggestions for post-vaccine commentary.

Because the vaccine goes out to a broader inhabitants, how will antagonistic occasions be tracked?

The CDC and Meals and Drug Administration encourage the general public to report attainable antagonistic occasions to the Vaccine Hostile Occasion Reporting System, or VAERS. This nationwide system collects these knowledge to search for antagonistic occasions which are sudden, seem to occur extra typically than anticipated or have uncommon patterns of prevalence. Anybody who has skilled an antagonistic occasion ought to report it to the system.

Reporting an antagonistic occasion is an important step to making sure security and to assist the CDC monitor the vaccines. Security is a high precedence, and scientists and public well being officers have to learn about antagonistic reactions.

An antagonistic occasion is completely different most often from a typical vaccine aspect impact. Vaccines might trigger a aspect impact, corresponding to soreness on the injection web site or redness. Hostile occasions are extra severe and might generally be life-threatening. If you’re uncertain whether or not you may have skilled a aspect impact or antagonistic occasion, you may nonetheless report the occasion.

Contributors are given a reality sheet when they’re vaccinated. Well being care suppliers who vaccinate folks can be required to report back to VAERS sure antagonistic occasions following vaccination. As well as, below the phrases of the emergency use authorization, well being care suppliers additionally should comply with any revised security reporting necessities that will come up.

The CDC can also be implementing a brand new smartphone-based software known as v-safe to verify in on folks’s well being after they obtain a COVID-19 vaccine. Once you obtain your vaccine, you must also obtain an info sheet telling you easy methods to enroll in v-safe. Should you enroll, you’ll obtain common textual content messages directing you to surveys the place you may report any issues or antagonistic reactions you may have after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Scientific pointers from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention for figuring out which sufferers ought to obtain the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination.

CDC

When may youngsters youthful than 16 be vaccinated?

It’s prone to be a number of months. The at the moment approved Pfizer and soon-to-be-authorized Moderna vaccine aren’t relevant for youngsters. Extra analysis and scientific trials must be completed to incorporate youthful youngsters in COVID-19 vaccine trials.

In line with the American Academy of Pediatrics, Pfizer has enrolled youngsters all the way down to age 12 and submitted a request for emergency use authorization for vaccination all the way down to age 16. Moderna, whose vaccine is anticipated to obtain emergency use authorization from the FDA any day, is about to begin the same examine.

In the UK, AstraZeneca has approval to enroll youngsters ages 5 to 12 in scientific trials, however the pharmaceutical firm has not but enrolled any youngsters in trials within the U.S.

Mona Hanna-Attisha doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that might profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.