• No, vaccine side effects don’t tell you how well your immune system will protect you from COVID-19

      Finberg, Robert W. (2021-04-19)
      It's normal for different people to mount stronger or weaker immune responses to a vaccine, but post-shot side effects won't tell you which you are. Robert Finberg is a physician who specializes in infectious diseases and immunology at the Medical School at the University of Massachusetts. He explains how this perception doesn’t match the reality of how vaccines work.
    • Preferences for COVID-19 vaccination information and location: Associations with vaccine hesitancy, race and ethnicity

      Fisher, Kimberly A.; Nguyen, Ngoc; Crawford, Sybil L.; Fouayzi, Hassan; Singh, Sonal; Mazor, Kathleen M. (2021-09-25)
      This study examined the association between preferences for being informed about the COVID-19 vaccine and where to receive it with vaccination intent and race/ethnicity. We conducted an online survey, oversampling Black and Latino panel members. The 1668 participants were 53.2% female, 34.8% White, 33.3% Black, and 31.8% Latino. Participants who were vaccine hesitant (answered “not sure” or “no” to vaccination intent) were more likely to prefer a conversation with their doctor compared to those who answered “yes” (25.0% and 23.4% vs 7.8%, P < .001, respectively). Among participants who responded “not sure”, 61.8% prefer to be vaccinated at a doctor’s office, compared with 35.2% of those who responded “yes” (P < .001). Preferred location differed by race/ethnicity (P < .001) with 67.6% of Black “not sure” participants preferring a doctor’s office compared to 60.2% of Latino and 54.9% of White “not sure” participants. These findings underscore the need to integrate healthcare providers into COVID-19 vaccination programs.