What to Do Next After Taking the First Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine?

If a COVID-19 vaccine requires two doses, experts say, no major change should take place after getting the first shot.

An NBC News report said that the United States hit a new high for the daily figure of COVID-19 vaccinations over the weekend with four million shots given.

The record was set as vaccinations have constantly increased over the past weeks, leading to a daily average of over three million.

Meaning, more people in the country are getting one dose of a COVID-19 each day. For the majority who will receive either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccine, it is just the initial dose. In three to four weeks, they will go back for their second jab.

What Happens After the First COVID-19 Shot?

According to health experts, an individual is protected after just the first injection if they took the COVID-19 vaccine from Jonson & Johnson's one-dose shot.

For the two other vaccines currently available in the country, according to experts, it is vital that those getting a two-dose vaccine shot to return for their second jab be completely protected.

Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Dr. Paul Offit said that people who are partially vaccinated should not sit tight "until they have completed" their series of vaccination.

The director added, it's just frightening that they've in any sense, but there the idea that Moderna and Pfizer are anything besides a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine.

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were around 80-percent effective at stopping infection. The said protection, the news report specified, was measured two weeks following the first doses but prior to the second.

Efficacy of the Vaccines

The CDC said that Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have 90- to 95-percent efficacy in real-world research. In a briefing early this week by the White House COVID-19 response team, the government's leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, qualified the findings and said, it is somewhat of a weak 80 percent. The expert added, this, is now a question of how long the protection would last.

According to Offit, the best reason to await the second dose is a person's wanting to get strong immunity.

Pfizer's research which was released last week showed that their COVID-19 vaccine's protection lasted at least six months in those who were given both doses of the vaccine.

Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital and the dean National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine said, getting the second dose will be really essential for lasting protection.

Importance of Getting a Second Dose

Furthermore, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, not just one, appear to shield against certain strains of COVID-19, which include the variant originally discovered in South Africa, the Pfizer research indicated.

Both Offit and Hotez claimed the second dose of an mRNA vaccine like the ones developed by Moderna and Pfizer, produces a much more robust immune response compared to a single dose.

Essentially, the second dose signals the immune system that COVID-19 is worth mounting a long-term reaction against, explained Stanford University immunologist Michal Tal.

For the immune system, she elaborated, it indeed does matter if people continue to see something, referring to the second dose.

If it's seen again, it is a signal that this is something worth dedicating too much energy to, and making a robust memory reaction against, she continued.

Meanwhile, the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine results in a similarly strong immune reaction following just a single dose.

The importance of getting a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is shown on mnhealth's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on COVID-19 and Vaccines on Science Times.