Vaccines reduce the risk of getting a disease by working with your body to build protection. When you are given a vaccine, your body responds by creating soldiers called antibodies.

Vaccines usually contain a small part of the germ/virus so that the body can make antibodies that fight the disease. The portion that is in the vaccine will not cause the disease in the person receiving the vaccine.

When most of a population has antibodies against an infectious disease because they have been vaccinated, it makes it difficult for the disease to spread, since most people will not get sick. This provides indirect protection – or herd immunity – for those who do not have antibodies themselves.

For example, if 80% of a population have antibodies against a virus, four out of every five people would not get sick (and would not spread the disease further) in case of an outbreak. In this way, the spread of infectious diseases is kept under control. To achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 requires that at least 65% of the adult population be vaccinated.

YES! vaccinations work

COVID-19 vaccination works by teaching your body how to recognise and fight the virus that causes COVID-19, and this protects you from getting very sick with COVID-19.

The side effects of the vaccine can have the same symptoms as COVID-19 (fever, chills, body aches); if it does not resolve in two to three days, you should seek medical care.

Once vaccinated, the antibodies are stored in the body, and when they next meet the virus or germ, they destroy it before you become unwell, thereby preventing the disease or more serious versions of it. Having antibodies is called having immunity to the disease.

We now have vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people of all ages to live longer, healthier lives. Vaccines currently prevent two to three million deaths every year from diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, influenza, and measles.

Vaccines are given to babies, such as the TB vaccine given immediately after birth, and the measles vaccine given when they are a few months older.

Some vaccines require multiple doses given weeks or months apart so that they produce enough antibodies that will be stored in your memory cells.

Vaccines go through many stages of testing, including testing thousands of volunteers, making sure it is safe for people to receive.

Experts check the results from trials and decide if the vaccine is safe to use before it is approved and distributed.

Government is working closely with the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) to ensure that the COVID-19 vaccine is approved for use and is safe.

The vaccine has also been used in clinical trials in South Africa, so many South Africans have already received it and have done well.

It is too early to know if COVID-19 vaccines will provide long-term protection, as it has just been developed and COVID-19 has only been around for a short space of time. Additional research is being done to be able to answer this question.

There is NO EVIDENCE that the vaccine will interfere with your ARV or TB treatment.

The more people receive the vaccine, the quicker the pandemic will be controlled.

There are three phases of the roll-out:

When it is your turn to be vaccinated, the Department of Health will inform you about the registration process and the procedure to be followed to receive your vaccination.

PHASE 1:

Health-care workers and people working in the health-care system. If they get sick, there is no one to look after the rest of us.

PHASE 2:

The vaccine will be given by a health-care worker in places such as a hospital, clinic, pharmacy, or doctor’s surgery.

It is given as an injection into the upper arm.

Some vaccines work well after one injection and others need two.

If a second injection is needed, it will be given 3 to 12 weeks after the first. Your health-care worker will advise you if and when you need to return.

Most people can have the vaccine safely. But before you are given the injection, a health-care worker will ask you a few questions. You will not be given the vaccine unless it is safe for you.

There are some people who will not get the vaccine. These are:

• Pregnant women.
• Children under the age of 18.
• People with serious allergic reactions to any vaccine.

You cannot catch COVID-19 from the vaccine, as there is no live coronavirus in it.

It is still possible to get COVID-19, as no vaccine is 100% effective.

You might have caught COVID-19 before being vaccinated (it can take up to 14 days for COVID-19 symptoms to start).

You might catch it within the first two weeks after being vaccinated while your immune system is being trained to fight COVID-19.