I don't know about you, but I spent so long thinking about when we'd have safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines that it's now kind of hard to believe people in the U.S. are actually, finally getting them. It's still surreal to see vaccine selfies on social media.
Recently, I also realized I've written far more about the lead-up to vaccinations than the actual vaccinations themselves. To fix that, I reached out to Angela Shen, a vaccine educator at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, to talk about what you should expect after you get a COVID-19 vaccine. Here are some key points:
Yes, you may have side effects. Some lucky people don't, but lots of people experience pain at the injection site, fatigue, headaches and muscle aches. Less commonly, people experience fever, chills or nausea. You can expect side effects to be worse after your second shot—but Shen says that's just a sign that your immune system is firing up.
Don't premedicate. There's some preliminary evidence to suggest painkillers may interfere with the body's ability to mount an immune response. To play it safe, experts recommend avoiding pain meds before vaccination, unless you need them to manage another medical condition.
Think about staying sober. Some experts have recommended abstaining from alcohol in the days before and after vaccination, to avoid over-taxing the immune system. There's no official guidance or evidence to suggest this is necessary, but Shen says it can't hurt to do so if you want to be extra cautious.
You wont be protected immediately. It can take a couple weeks after you receive your second shot of the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for your body to mount a full immune response, so don't assume you're protected as soon as you've gotten both shots.
And you'll still need to take precautions afterward. There's promising preliminary evidence to suggest COVID-19 vaccines stop viral transmission as well as disease—but until scientists know for sure, experts say you should assume you can asymptomatically spread COVID-19 even after you're vaccinated. That means continuing to wear a mask and practicing social distancing when you're in public or around unvaccinated people, at least until we have widespread vaccine coverage.
While 37.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this morning, only about 27.9 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker—representing 8.4% of the overall U.S. population who have received at least one dose.
Johnson & Johnson has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to clear its one-dose coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in the U.S. The shot, which is about 85% effective at preventing severe disease, could be particularly valuable in areas without robust health care networks, since it is delivered in a single dose. The FDA's vaccine advisory panel will meet on Feb. 26 to discuss the vaccine; if all goes well, authorization could come shortly thereafter.
The FDA's acting commissioner, Janet Woodcock, also said yesterday that the agency is working on guidelines for expedited review of any COVID-19 booster shots that become necessary to address future viral variants. So far, existing vaccines have proven effective against already identified viral variants—just today, researchers released preliminary evidence suggesting AstraZeneca's vaccine is effective against a variant found in the U.K.—but Woodcock acknowledged that "if variants emerge that the vaccines have poor efficacy against, we will need to go through these quickly." The FDA is expected to release guidance on this issue in the next few weeks.
Pfizer has temporarily withdrawn its application for emergency use of its vaccine in India, citing regulators' requests for more data. Pfizer applied for emergency use in India in late 2020, but the Indian government chose to first authorize shots made by AstraZeneca-Oxford and Indian company Bharat Biotech. The pharmaceutical company plans to resubmit its application in India "in the near future," representatives said.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
Almost 105 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 2.2 million people have died. On Feb. 4, there were 465,405 new cases and 13,874 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 1.5 million confirmed cases:
Canada is drawing criticism for requesting vaccine doses from the COVAX project, an initiative meant to ensure equitable access to vaccines around the world. According to COVAX's projections, Canada will receive 1.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine by this summer—news that prompted some critics to wonder why a wealthy country should benefit from a program mostly intended for low- and middle-income countries. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland defended the plan, saying, "Our government will never apologize for doing everything in our power to get Canadians vaccinated as quickly as possible." As of now, Canada has administered only about three doses per 100 people.
That's still better than many African countries, which are struggling to get access to vaccines due to "hoarding" in wealthier countries, CNN reports. While some North American and European countries have purchased more than enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations, many in Africa have not begun vaccinating at all. In South Africa, for example, health officials were desperate enough for supplies that they bought AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines from the Serum Institute of India at nearly double the price paid by richer countries.
More than 500 Australian Open players and staff are in quarantine in Melbourne after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 days before the tennis tournament was set to begin. Prior to the diagnosis, which also prompted a fresh mask mandate and limits on gatherings in the state of Victoria, the state had not seen community transmission of COVID-19 for almost a month. The tournament is still set to go forward, thousands of fans and all.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded more than 26.6 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 455,000 people have died. On Feb. 4, there were 122,473 new cases and 5,077 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
As of yesterday, the coronavirus has killed more than 450,000 people in the U.S., even as more people get vaccinated against the virus each day. Daily death tolls this month have frequently been well above 3,000 people, likely a holdover from surges in cases reported after the holidays. Case counts have begun to drop again, but with Super Bowl Sunday this weekend, experts fear another spike.
The Biden Administration announced today that it will deploy more than 1,000 active-duty military personnel to help staff several vaccination centers run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Personnel will first be sent to sites in California, one of the states hardest-hit by the pandemic, and are expected to arrive within the next 10 days. Biden Administration officials also said at a briefing today that they will invoke the Defense Production Act to help support the manufacture of vaccines, testing kits and personal protective equipment.
Despite record-setting death tolls in the U.S., masks are still a subject of political debate. Just an hour after Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin voted to repeal the state's mask mandate yesterday, Democratic Governor Tony Evers implemented a new one. Some Republicans argued Evers didn't have the authority to unilaterally impose a new mandate, but Evers maintained that mask-wearing is necessary as Wisconsin records more than 1,000 new diagnoses each day.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of Feb. 5, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The Lineman Who Traded the NFL for the Front Lines
Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, an offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs and a medical school graduate, decided to skip this NFL season to work in a long-term care facility. In an interview with TIME's Sean Gregory, he talks about what it's like to watch his team make it to the Super Bowl while he's on the front lines. Read more here.
COVID Disparities Extend to Vaccination
People of color in the U.S. have gotten sick and died from COVID-19 at higher rates than white people throughout the pandemic. Even still, data suggest they are getting vaccinated at much lower rates than white Americans, my colleague Emily Barone reports. Read more here.
The Pandemic Has Erased Categories of Friendship
Remember what it was like to banter with your barista or chat with co-workers in the kitchen? The Atlantic's Amanda Mull has a great (but sad) piece on how the pandemic is erasing these casual but crucial relationships. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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