Fight Against Covid-19: Vaccines Will Only Help If You Get Them Before You Are Infected

A physician in the United States made headlines recently after having explained to severely patients that Covid-19 vaccines could not help them after they had developed the disease. He explained that the vaccines work by helping the immune system learn to identify and fight off the coronavirus. As a result, vaccines protect one from getting and transmitting the virus that causes Covid-19.

Covid-19 vaccines help stop the transmission of the virus, keep people with serious cases out of the hospital, and most importantly, help save life and the lives of those around you. However, the vaccine cannot help fight Covid_19 if you already have it.

In a story that went viral recently, Dr. Brytney Cobia begged followers on Facebook to get the vaccine as soon as possible in the wake of seeing new patients in critical care who did not have the vaccine.

According to CDC_Africa, Covid-19 vaccines are effective. They work by helping your immune system learn how to identify and fight the coronavirus. As a result, the vaccines help protect you from getting and transmitting the virus that causes Covid-19.

“Vaccines work by helping your body builds up antibodies prior to an infection,” said Dr. Teresa Amato, chair of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills in New York. “The vaccine is in its most effective state about 10 to 14 days after completion of the injections. That time period is when your body increases production of antibodies and makes some memory cells to help fight the virus if you are exposed,” she added.

The vaccines can also help keep you from getting seriously ill if you do develop Covid-19, because your immune system is better able to attack the virus before it spreads or becomes more serious.

It’s important to recall  that the vaccines do not mean your chances of getting Covid-19 are 0 percent, and in extremely rare cases, vaccinated people have needed to be hospitalized or died from the disease.

The vast majority of people who are currently becoming sick enough to need hospitalization are people who have not been vaccinated.

“The goal of all vaccines, including the Covid-19 vaccines, is to stimulate the body’s immune system and antibody response if the offending virus or bacteria were to enter the person’s system,” said Dr. Theodore Strange, interim chair of medicine at Staten Island University Hospital in New York.

Antibodies can be stimulated in many ways. One of them is giving people an inactive piece of virus messenger which then stimulates the person’s immune system to create antibodies in the event of exposure to the virus, health experts explained.

The vaccines provide a suit of armor before going into battle to help protect you against an attack. If you go into battle without a suit of armor and become wounded, putting the armor on after the fact will not help you.

“Vaccines are not acute treatments of the disease,” added Strange. “It takes the body time before the immune response is built up, including the fact that more than one vaccination may be needed to attain the immunity.”

If you contract the virus, the vaccine can’t help you. The safest and most responsible choice we can make is to become vaccinated because, as Cobia has seen time and time again, once it’s too late, it’s too late.

“As a physician, it is important to be nonjudgmental when asking a patient about their Covid-19 vaccine status. However, it has become increasingly difficult to see patients critically ill with a Covid-19 infection that declined a vaccine earlier. Once a patient is infected with the virus and is ill, a vaccine is ineffective at decreasing symptoms,” said Amato.

“It is unfortunate that people are hesitant about the vaccine. I have personally cared for patients infected with Covid-19 who really regret not having gotten the vaccine sooner,” she further said.

For those who are currently fully vaccinated, the CDC has recently updated its guidelines in light of the new Delta variant, which has proven to be even more contagious than previous versions. Even if you’re fully vaccinated, the CDC recommends wearing a mask and the respect of barrier measures when indoors in places that have a high concentration of new Covid-19 cases.