JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Health specialists worldwide are still learning more about the coronavirus, while many people are still wary of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Jacksonville infectious disease specialist Dr. Mohammad Reza held an online chat session Wednesday evening to help the community better understand the vaccines and answer questions still swirling about the shots.
One woman asked about the possibility of a third vaccine shot to handle some of the COVID-19 mutations.
“They are actually working on a third, kind of a booster to an extent, to provide us protection against those variants,” Reza said.
WATCH: Q&A with Dr. Mohammad Reza
Reza said that’s what makes emerging companies adding their vaccines to the mix so important.
“That’s the important part with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because those were tested in other countries as well such as Brazil, such as South Africa,” Reza said.
Also taking part in the session was Reza’s colleague Dr. Anil Suryaprasad, an internal medicine specialist who used to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
“The specialists at the national level think that a year after your first vaccine, you might need to get a booster dose to be able to protect the same level of immunity,” Suryaprasad said. “But time will tell, and this will be studied in the original trial participants as they move forward.”
What if you have another serious illness like HIV, which causes AIDS and interferes with the body’s ability to fight infections? Reza cited a study suggesting people who are HIV-positive should be part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s increased risk category for vaccine priority, after looking at the outcome of nearly 3,000 HIV-positive people, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 last spring.
“Blacks and African Americans and Hispanic people were more likely than whites to be diagnosed with COVID-19, but they were not more likely than whites to be hospitalized or to die in the hospital,” Reza said.
Another question asked: If I couldn’t get the flu vaccine because of egg allergies, can I get a COVID-19 vaccine shot? The answer: There’s no egg component in the vaccines. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are safe to take if you have a history of egg allergies.