Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy
Lara Lambert is 42 year old physician at the Veterans Hospital in Charleston SC who specializes in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine, and is a Stage 3c Colorectal patient. She is happy to speak with anyone who has vaccination questions or wants to know more.
If you haven’t been vaccinated for COVID-19, what are you waiting for?
It is safe:
Since December 2020 more than 156 million Americans are fully vacccinated against COVID-19. That is more than the total number of people who have been infected with the virus (approximately 112 million). Given the number of vaccines administered, common, uncommon and rare side effects would have been detected by now. Most side effects, if any, are seen within minutes to hours (24 hours) and are usually mild and go away on their own. Serious side effects are very very very rare and are closely monitored by health regulatory agencies around the world. AND, no non-live vaccine has EVER been shown to have bad side effects YEARS later.
It is effective:
Amongst the 156 million Americans fully vaccinated, only 153,000 symptomatic breakthrough cases have occurred as of last week. This represents approximately 0.098% of those fully vaccinated.
It is highly protective.
There is an 8 fold reduction in disease, and a 25 fold reduction in hospitalizations and deaths in patients that have been vaccinated. And even if you do get COVID-19 after being vaccinated (nothing is perfect), symptoms are much milder than if you were not vaccinated.
Additionally, even if you are vaccinated, I would encouage all to continue to wear a mask indoors and outdoors where you cannot socially distance. Given the surge in COVID-19 in all areas of South Carolina (we are back to pre-vaccine COVID-19 daily numbers), masking is safe, simple and effective in preventing the spread of infection