About the COVID-19 Vaccines and mAb Treatment

“Amid COVID-19 overload, Alaska’s largest hospital is now prioritizing care under crisis standards… Providence Alaska Medical Center’s chief of staff announced the decision in a two-page letter Tuesday that urges Alaskans to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status, get tested, get vaccinated if eligible and avoid potentially dangerous activities or situations that could result in hospitalization.”

– ADN.com as of 9/15/2021

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According to the CDC, all currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines:

are safe,

are effective,

are widely available, and

reduce your risk of severe illness

Source

How COVID-19 Vaccines Work

COVID-19 vaccination is an important tool to help stop the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccination helps protect people from getting sick or severely ill with COVID-19 and might also help protect people around them.

COVID-19 vaccines help our bodies develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19 without us having to get the illness.

Once vaccinated, the 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. It typically takes a few weeks after vaccination for the body to produce T-lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes. Therefore, it is possible that a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and then get sick because the vaccine did not have enough time to provide protection. Sometimes after vaccination, the process of building immunity can cause symptoms, such as fever. These symptoms are normal and are signs that the body is building immunity. [Source]

• All COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States are effective at preventing COVID-19 as seen in clinical trial settings.
• Research provides growing evidence that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines offer similar protection in real world conditions.
• To receive the most protection, people should receive all recommended doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. [Source]

“In the U.S., 381 million doses have been given so far. In the last week, an average of 775,167 doses per day were administered.”

– Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker as of 9/14/2021

Additional resources and information can be found here:

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Monoclonal Antibodies (mAb) for High Risk COVID-19 Positive Patients

If you’ve tested positive for COVID-19, one of the first questions you may have is, What can I do to reduce the risk of getting sicker?  The good news is, there are treatments that may reduce that risk. Depending on your age, health history, and how long you’ve had symptoms of COVID-19, you may qualify for a promising form of treatment for the disease. It’s called monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment.

mAb treatment may help people who have a positive COVID-19 test, and had symptoms for 10 days or less or are at high risk of getting more serious symptoms.

Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful antigens such as viruses. Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody that is specifically directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and is designed to block the virus’ attachment and entry into human cells. [Source]