Editor s Note: This is an excerpt from a COVID-19 vaccine special edition of WBUR s weekly coronavirus newsletter. This is part one of three. You can get the other special edition emails, in addition to our weekly vaccine and COVID reporting, in your inbox when you sign up here.
This week, grab your hard hat and shiny vest because we re talking safety. We re going to explain why, when it comes to the development of these vaccines, fast does not mean shoddy. We’ll also talk about side effects, and why the type of vaccine made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech isn t going to change your DNA (or whatever other false claims are making the rounds on your Facebook and Twitter feeds).
Staffers at the Cambridge Health Alliance clinic for COVID-19 patients in Somerville RN Erik Westhaver and Medical Assistants Nancy Morales and Carla Ayala show off their newly vaccinated arms. (Courtesy Dr. Anna Rabkina, Cambridge Health Alliance)
Last month, primary care doctor John Adams realized that coronavirus vaccines would be coming very soon, and he wasn’t ready for them. He didn’t know enough yet to counsel patients or make his own decision about whether to get one. And some of his colleagues at the Cambridge Health Alliance COVID-19 clinic in Somerville, Mass., felt the same. It was very much like, ‘We need to learn more about how these things work, because they’re coming fast, Dr. Adams said, and we all sort of shared these doubts.