Everything Parents Need Know About The COVID Vaccine

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With quarantine fatigue long since set in, many people are putting all their eggs in the vaccine basket. They’re burnt out and stressed and lonely — and the only thing keeping them going is the promise that a COVID vaccine will arrive soon. But with the media treating every small vaccine development like a major news event, it’s difficult to keep track of what’s really happening and what matters.

Confused about what’s going on? You’re not alone. We’ll keep this list updated to answer your most important questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.

When Will COVID Vaccines Be Available?

It’s here! The Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are all approved for emergency use in the U.S.

Five companies have publicized their vaccine results. Pfizer was the first company to share that its vaccine is 95 percent effective. Moderna was second with 94 percent efficacy. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was approved at the end of February, is 77 percent effective at preventing severe and critical COVID-19 in the U.S 14 days after vaccination.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is up to 90 percent effective, although the data is murky. Several countries have given emergency approval to the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, but it probably won’t be available in the U.S. until April because more testing is needed. The COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax, a company that has not yet brought any vaccine to market, was 90 percent effective in a British trial. Approval for the Novavax vaccine could be several months away. Experts warn not to compare the efficacy rates between vaccines because the trials for each are too different for accurate comparison.

At this point, it’s not a race between the various vaccine companies. The more vaccines that become available, the better next year looks for all of us.

Do the Vaccines Work Against the UK, South Africa, and Brazil Variants?

Early trials suggest that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are mostly effective against the coronavirus variants that originated in the U.K. Both vaccines produce less neutralizing antibodies against the variant that emerged in South Africa, but antibody numbers don’t directly translate to efficacy and experts expect the vaccines still offer significant protection. Johnson & Johnson found that its vaccine is 57 percent effective in South Africa. Vaccine manufacturers have already started to create a booster shot targeted at the South Africa variant. More research is needed, but the variant from Brazil is expected to react similarly to the one from South Africa. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 68 percent effective in Brazil against all forms of COVID-19 and 88 percent effective at preventing severe disease.

When Will the AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine Be Available?

Regulators in other countries, such as the U.K. and India, have granted AstraZeneca’s vaccine emergency approval, but the process is dragging out longer in the U.S. The company’s clinical trials in the U.S. were put on hold for more than a month to investigate a serious adverse event in a trial volunteer, so experts don’t expect it’s results for several more months, according to the New York Times.

In addition, the company’s data is under scrutiny after it initially failed to disclose critical information related to vaccine efficacy. With two full doses, the vaccine was 62 percent effective. With a half dose followed by a full dose booster, the vaccine was 90 percent effective. However, the more effective regimen was a result of error in how much vaccine was placed in some vials, and it was tested in a younger population. The company changed the trial’s methods after they realized this error to include the new regimen in the trial, according to the chief executive officer Pascal Soriot, but AstraZeneca did not reveal this in its original press release.

Soriot said the company may need to conduct another international trial to test the second regimen, Bloomberg reported. The head of Operation Warp Speed recently said not to expect the AstraZeneca vaccine until early April, largely because the existing data doesn’t include elderly people.

Who Will Get the COVID Vaccine First?

Vaccine eligibility varies from state to state. However, it generally is only available now to healthcare workers, residents and employees of long-term care facilities such as nursing homes, people 65 and older, and some essential workers and people with underlying conditions.

Most children won’t be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine until more studies are conducted, according to the CDC. The one exception: Teenagers aged 16 and older are allowed to get the Pfizer vaccine. Pfizer has finished enrolling children age 12-15 in its COVID-19 vaccine trial and may apply for authorization in the first half of 2021. Moderna is close to finished enrolling kids age 12-17 in their trials. AstraZeneca will begin testing its vaccine in the youngest age group so far with children aged 6-17. Johnson & Johnson will soon begin testing children too. Vaccines that are safe and effective in adults are generally safe and effective in children, but they must be tested on kids first before they are mass distributed to them.

For a more personalized look at when you could get the vaccine, check out this short quiz from the New York Times that estimates your place in line. Most people will have to wait until the spring at the earliest.

Gallery: The Pfizer Vaccine May Be Less Effective If You Have This Common Condition (Best Life)

Where Can I Get the COVID Vaccine?

Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities should check with their institutions about when and where they can get vaccinated. For most other people, vaccines are not publicly available yet. When you are able to get vaccinated, look to get it through select pharmacies such as Walgreen’s and CVS, Walmart, Target, Publix, Kroger, hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, and more, according to CNET. Some mass distribution sites also give out vaccines to eligible groups at locations such as school gymnasiums, NFL stadiums, and even Disneyland.

Not every vaccine will be available everywhere, which is one reason why it’s important to have multiple options. Pfizer’s is the hardest to distribute. If being stored for more than two weeks, it must be kept at the ultra cold temperature of -70 degrees Celsius, and not all healthcare facilities are capable of this type of storage. Once a box of vaccines is removed from the freezer for use, it only lasts for five days before going bad. Luckily, Moderna’s vaccine can be stored at a much more manageable -20 degrees Celsius, and it lasts for 30 days in the refrigerator. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is particularly convenient because it only requires one dose.

What’s in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID Vaccines?

Pfizer and Moderna are both using a new kind of vaccine called a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. Messenger RNA is a type of genetic material that encodes the instructions for making proteins. The mRNA in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines encode for the spike protein on the coronavirus that grabs and infects human cells. After being vaccinated, the body builds up antibodies that respond to this spike protein in case it gets exposed to the real coronavirus later on. The mRNA doesn’t stay in the body but is broken down after a few days.

Vaccines usually contain a common set of added ingredients, including:

• Aluminum: boosts the body’s response to the vaccine
• MF59 or Squalene oil: boosts the body’s response to the vaccine
• Thiomersal: preservative
• Gelatin: preservative
• Sorbitol: stabilizes the vaccine
• Emulsifiers: holds ingredients together

(For more information about these ingredients, many of which are in the flu vaccine, click here.)

Pfizer has released its full list of ingredients, which include many of those listed above. It includes lipids, or fats, that surround the mRNA and help it enter cells. It also contains four types of salts that keep the vaccine at the same acidity as the human body and sugar, which keeps small particles in the vaccine from sticking together when they’re frozen. The vaccine contains no preservatives, a choice Pfizer made because some preservatives are at the center of disproved worries that vaccines cause autism, according to the MIT Technology Review. Moderna has also published its ingredients, which are similar to Pfizer’s.

What’s in the AstraZeneca COVID Vaccine?

AstraZeneca’s vaccine uses a more traditional approach. It’s active ingredient is a defunct virus that gives chimpanzees the common cold. The virus is modified so that it won’t make humans sick and so that it contains the gene that encodes for the coronavirus spike protein. When a person is injected with this vaccine, the chimp virus hijacks the human cells to produce the spike protein. The body then does it’s thing, taking out the proteins and creating antibodies to attack them if they come back around.

What’s in the Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine?

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, similar to AstraZeneca’s, uses a defunct virus instead of mRNA. The company’s vaccine uses an adenovirus that typically would cause the common cold, but it’s modified so it can’t replicate inside the body. The adenovirus carries a coronavirus gene into human cells, which read that gene and make the coronavirus’s spike protein but not the virus itself. The immune system reacts to that spike protein and builds up immunity against it so antibodies can attack the spike protein on the coronavirus if the person ever gets infected. This adenovirus technique has been used for other vaccines in the past and is well-studied.

I Got the COVID Vaccine. What Now?

After your first dose, you’ll need a second (unless you get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine). Originally, the second dose was supposed to be administered about three or four weeks after the first, depending on the brand. Now, the CDC says you just need to get it within six weeks, although closer to the original timeline is better.

When you first get the vaccine, you’ll need to keep going about a normal pandemic lifestyle: social distancing, staying at home, and wearing a mask when you do go in public. The first reason for this is that it takes time for immunity to kick in. After your booster, it will be several more weeks until you hit peak protection.

After that time passes, you may feel invincible from the virus. And you will very well be safer. But no vaccine is 100 percent effective. And the companies didn’t track how many people that received their vaccines got infected and were asymptomatic, so it’s possible you could feel fine and spread COVID-19 even after you’ve been vaccinated.

It will only be safe to start going more once we reach herd immunity. At that point, case numbers and then hospitalizations and deaths will begin to decline. Ashish Jha, a health policy researcher and dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, predicted on Twitter that with a combination of vaccines and natural immunity from being infected, at least 40 percent of the U.S. population will have immunity to COVID-19 by the end of February. At this point, the spread will slow, but we won’t yet be at herd immunity.

However, more and more public health figures are emphasizing that getting vaccinated is really, really protective. Although the risk of transmission is zero, it’s much lower than for non-vaccinated individuals. If you do get COVID-19, your risk of being hospitalized or dying is very low. You still need to be cautious when seeing unvaccinated people, but you can worry a bit less when meeting up with other full vaccinated folks.

Life as normal won’t return until enough people vaccinated, which could be spring or summer at the earliest. Then, public health officials will make the call. In the meantime, get the vaccine and keep playing your part to drive infections down.

This story is developing. We will update it as new information becomes available. 

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