+ What’s a coronavirus?

Coronavirus is the name for a group of viruses that look the same. The word comes from the Spanish (or latin word) for Crown (corona), meaning that all coronaviruses have spikes (like on a crown).

+ What is COVID-19?

COVID-19 is a newly identified coronavirus that emerged in late 2019. Also called SARS-CoV-2, it typically causes mild to moderate illnesses. However, in some cases it causes sicknesses severe enough to need care in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

+ Why are Black women at higher risk of dying from COVID-19?

• Black women are a significant part of the front-line workforce (e.g. hospitality, retail and health care). Many of these positions require close interaction with the public, are often low paid and without paid sick leave.

• Black women disproportionately confront the reality of not being believed by health care providers.

• Black women are more likely to live in high density areas where social distancing is not feasible.

• Black women are the primary care-takers of those in their community because of gender and race oppression.

+ What's the coronavirus disease?

Coronaviruses cause respiratory disease in humans. There are many different kinds of coronavirus, including four different kinds that cause mild sickness (like the common cold).

+ What are the symptoms of COVID-19?

Symptoms may include, but are not limited to, chills, muscle or body pain, fatigue, headache, sore throat, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, congestion or runny nose, or new loss of taste or smell.

+ How does COVID-19 spread?

The COVID-19 virus is transmitted when respiratory droplets are expelled as a person talks, coughs, or sneezes and another person inhales enough of those respiratory droplets (which have virus in it) into their lungs.

At the beginning, many scientists, warned us that COVID might also be spread when people come into contact with droplets containing the virus by touching surfaces where the droplets are, and then touching their faces. Although this can still happen, it is now considered much less likely because of the amount of viral load needed to become ill.

+ What’s an immune system?

The immune system is a huge network of different cells and proteins in your body. You’ve got things like white blood cells that fight the invading virus or bacteria, communication cells that organize the response, and antibodies that search for and identify the enemy.

When a virus (or bacteria) attacks your body, your immune system attacks back. It is the “natural” defense system that our body has built in.

+ What's a vaccine?

Vaccines prepare your body’s immune system to recognize and fight off germs.

Once your body knows (is taught by vaccines) to recognize a virus and has figured out how to fight it, your body’s natural defenses kick in more quickly and therefore help us not get as sick.

Visit the LA County of Public Health to learn more about how vaccines work.

+ How do vaccines provide immunity?

Vaccines prepare your body’s immune system to recognize and fight off germs. Germs are also known as viruses.

Once a vaccine has taught your body how to recognize and fight a virus, your immune system is able to prevent a disease like COVID-19 so that you don’t become dangerously sick if you are exposed.

+ Can the vaccines make me sick with COVID-19?

NO, the current vaccines don’t include the virus in any form – no live virus, no weakened virus, no dead virus. You just cannot get the disease from the vaccine.

It is easy to be confused about this, because you might feel some side effects for a while after getting the vaccine. In fact, about half of the volunteers who tested these vaccines experienced some side effects: most of these effects were mild and did not require any treatment or change in daily activity and lasted for 1-2 days. What they were feeling was not COVID-19, however, not even a mild case of COVID-19.

+ What is scientific research?

"Scientific Research" does not mean that you are being researched on.

Many of us work like scientists all the time. For example, when we meet a new person, we often decide (hypothesize) that the person may be someone we like. Based on our experience (past research results), and then based on future experiences of conversation and support from this person (evidence) we determine if that person is trustworthy enough to be a friend.

In medical science this means that scientists and medical providers are studying the impact of something (an illness, a treatment etc.) on people and deciding if their initial impressions (hypothesis) leads helpful understandings and solutions. They confirm, modify or reject their hypothesis with what they learned and move on to the next step of learning more.

Scientific research in many ways is the same as a growth mind-set, when we allow new information to change and transform our understandings. This is why there are often constant changes and refinements to our understandings.

+ What is mRNA technology?

mRNA vaccines provide human cells with instructions on how to create a piece of the coronavirus “spike” protein. This teaches our cells how to trigger an immune response in our bodies, which helps fight the virus that causes COVID-19. Having immunity to the virus prevents us from becoming sick.

mRNA vaccines are different from standard vaccines because they do not contain a live virus and do not carry a risk of causing disease in the vaccinated person. This is another reason pharmaceutical company were able to produce the vaccine so quickly.

+ What is an Adenovirus?

Adenovirus is a form of Viral vector vaccine. This method uses a modified, harmless version of a different virus (the vector) to deliver important instructions to our cells. The non-threatening virus enters a cell in our body and uses the cell's machinery to produce a harmless piece of the virus that causes COVID-19. This piece is known as a spike protein and it is only found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The cell displays the spike protein on its surface, and our immune system recognizes it doesn’t belong there. This triggers an immune response and our bodies begin producing antibodies to fight off what it thinks is an infection.

At the end of the process, our bodies have learned how to protect us against future infection with the virus that causes COVID-19.

+ Will the vaccine give me COVID-19?

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines do not give you COVID. mRNA and Adenovirus from the vaccine do not affect or alter a person’s DNA.

+ Can we trust the people who made this vaccine?

It’s true that Big Pharma –the people who developed these vaccines are for-profit entities who have (and continue to have) many problematic practices. For example: drug companies putting profit before safety (for example, by aggressively promoting highly addictive opioid painkillers).

However, the process for developing these vaccines and the make-up of the products themselves has been transparent, with more information available to independent scientists than ever before.

• The development of these vaccines has been carried out in the public eye. In fact, reviews of vaccine safety and efficacy (a term used to mean that the vaccines work) have been published for anyone to read. That means you or your doctor can read the reviews and decide whether the research seems solid and the findings are believable.

• The people reviewing the research include medical leaders from diverse settings all over the country and observers (non-voting members) representing a wide range of medical groups, including some that have fought hard against medical racism. They have not been paid for this work – they have been involved to verify the quality of the research and to assure that equity is protected throughout the process. For a list of names of the reviewers and the places they work, visit the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) website. You can learn more about these people by looking them up online.

• Safety was not sacrificed: Previous research about other coronaviruses gave science a head start [link to video with explanation about virus]

• Doctors do not make extra money for giving vaccines. They are paid for a medical visit, same as any other primary care visit.

+ What has been done to prove the vaccine is safe?

The COVID-19 Task Force on Vaccines and Therapeutics is an independent, nonpartisan task force that was appointed by the National Medical Association. The National Medical Association (NMA) is the largest and oldest national organization representing African American physicians and their patients in the United States.

In 2020, the COVID-19 task force met with scientists from Pfizer and Moderna and reviewed clinical outcomes data made available to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the CDC ACIP.

The task force reviewed the data to determine if the Black community is at higher risk from the vaccine. Their research revealed the following:

• Ten percent of people who enrolled in both the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials were Black, equaling more than 4,400 and 3,000 people, respectively.

• Participants’ underlying health and profession were also tracked: 35% of Moderna’s study subjects were living with chronic health problems, including heart, lung or liver disease. About 22% were health care workers, and another 7% — about 2,000 women and men — were retail, restaurant or hospitality workers. (John Hopkins)

• The U.S. test participants for Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot COVID-19 vaccine were 15% Hispanic/Latinx; 13% Black/African American; 6% Asian and 1% Native American.(John Hopkins)

• Both the percentage and number of Black people enrolled are sufficient to have confidence in health outcomes of the clinical trials.

• Two of the vaccines that have been approved to protect against COVID-19 were studied on more than 70,000 volunteers, including adults of all ages and different racial and ethnic groups, and were found to work very well and be equally safe for all.

• Persons receiving the vaccine were > 94% less likely to develop COVID-19 infection as compared to the placebo group.

• Efficacy and safety were observed and consistent across age, gender, race, ethnicity and adults over 65 years of age.

Please refer to the CDC ACIP Recommendations for more details.

+ What is involved in the vaccine testing process?

Click here to see an infographic from the National Institute of Health that explains the four phases of testing trials that a vaccine must successfully pass before being appoved.

Click here to read the CDC safety steps in place for the COVID-19 vaccine.

+ What are possible side effects to the vaccine?

So far, side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines have been moderate, with serious reactions happening very rarely.

If you're planning to get the vaccine, allow yourself extra time to sleep and rest afterwards.

Short-term COVID-19 vaccine side effects following the Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations include:

• Pain and redness at the injection site
• Fatigue
• Muscle aches and pains
• Joint pain and headache
• Women are reporting side-effects more often than men

Side effects last an average of 1 to 3 days.

The side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine are occurring at lower rates than vaccines for diseases like measles, polio or influenza.

Severe Allergy Side Effects

• There have been serious side effects for people with a history of severe allergies.
• In England, two people with developed an allergic reaction immediately after receiving the Pfizer vaccine outside of the clinical trial. These individuals recovered from the allergic reaction, with no long-term effects.
• People with severe allergies that experienced serious side effects were almost exclusively women.

While these reports are being investigated, caution should be given for people with severe allergies.

• According to the CDC, anyone who has severe allergies (e.g., anaphylaxis) to any of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine ingredients should not receive this vaccine.(John Hopkins)

The CDC says people with allergies to certain foods, insects, latex and other common allergens can safely receive the COVID-19 vaccine.