A week ago, I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. This was a really exciting moment for me as it was a cure to the anxiety I had been facing due to COVID throughout these long months. However, I think the mindset I had after getting vaccinated was flawed in many ways and it was a good opportunity for me to become educated of what getting the vaccine means. The vaccine doesn’t prevent you from catching the virus, it merely prevents you from getting sick from it. According to the CDC, after you get the vaccine, your body is left with a supply of “memory” T-lymphocytes as well as B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that virus in the future. For terminology, T-lymphocytes are a type of defensive white blood cell that attack cells in the body that have already been infected and B-lymphocytes are also defensive white blood cells that produce antibodies that attack the pieces of the virus left behind by macrophages. Macrophages are white blood cells that swallow up and digest germs and dead or dying cells. The macrophages leave behind parts of the invading germs, called “antigens”. The body identifies antigens as dangerous and stimulates antibodies to attack them. The CDC informs that it typically takes a few weeks after vaccination for the body to produce T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes so it’s possible to get infected with the virus just before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to provide protection. A piece of information extremely important to be aware of as someone who is vaccinated is that people are considered fully protected two weeks after their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, or two weeks after the single-dose Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. So, it’s important to still be safe in public places, wear a mask, and practice social distancing. This goes for even later after getting fully vaccinated. These vaccines aren’t preventing you from getting COVID and spreading it to others, so it’s important to be mindful and considerate of those who haven’t gotten vaccinated yet.
