DETROIT – Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge has been answering viewer questions about coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccines.
Information on the vaccines is developing quickly and there is a very good understanding of effectiveness and safety from the trials that were done to secure authorization. However, more information will come out during the mass vaccination campaign.
Does a person need to be retested after they’ve had COVID and recovered?
The answer is no.
Once it’s established that a person has been infected we treat the illness based on your symptoms and clinical condition from the standpoint of determining when a person is no longer infectious that’s also determined by the course of your illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has guidance for when it’s safe to be around others. It’s 10 days since symptoms first appeared and 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving.
Is there a window when you can get your second vaccine or does it have to be exactly 21 or 28 days depending on which vaccine you get?
Ideally your second dose will be exactly on time. Since that’s what the efficacy data from the trials was based on.
If it’s not possible to get the second dose on time it is acceptable to get it as soon as possible after 21 days for the Pfizer vaccine or 28 days for the Moderna vaccine. Preferably with three to four days after it was due.
Is the vaccine a live vaccine?
Many viewers continue to have questions about whether the COVID-19 vaccine is a live vaccine. The currently authorized Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are not a live vaccine. Both of them are mRNA vaccines.
There is no live component to either of them. None of the vaccines being developed in the U.S. are made with either live or inactivated whole COVID-19 virus.