After months of hard work, two vaccines that protect against COVID are finally being distributed and administered, but are they safe and effective? A registered nurse takes her second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in February 2021, and gives post-vaccine thoughts.

Kristie Foryt, who has a Bachelor’s degree of Science in Nursing, has received weekly, inside information on COVID-19 ever since the start of the pandemic. Likewise, she also receives updates and more information about the vaccine because of her employment in the medical field. She still has some concern for the vaccine, but took it anyways because thousands of people are taking it per day.

“I believe that it was not researched enough before it was made available, and it is brand new to everyone. I have a lot of underlying health conditions that could have interfered with [the vaccine’s efficacy],” says Foryt.

There are also many people who will take or have taken the vaccine to ensure safety against the virus even though Kristie does not necessarily feel any different, but still trusts the vaccine.

“I feel like mentally in my mind, I know I have an extra level of protection, but we also don’t know how long it lasts and we don’t know if it guards against the new variants of corona that is being introduced to our area. So I will still continue to follow all of the covid precautions.”

For Moderna, which is one of three vaccines ption out right now — Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson being the other two approved vaccines —  there are two shots of the vaccine. The first is a booster, to boost the immune system to prepare for the second shot with just enough of the virus’ mRNA so that it builds up an immunity against the virus. The Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccinea that has both synthetic, or chemically produced, components and produce components from naturally occurring substances such as proteins. Both vaccines do not contain any live virus. 

Most people have no issues with both, however Mrs. Foryt did not deal well with the second shot especially, since she was out for about 1-2 days, suffering from some moderate side-effects from the vaccine, before she was “back to normal,” she says.

 However, she knows many older people and people in worse condition, that deal with both shots without any trouble. 

“If you are allergic to anything within the vaccine or have reacted to vaccines in the past, I don’t believe I would do it if I was pregnant, and it is not researched in anyone under the age of 16 yet.”

Doctors strongly recommend researching all vaccines before taking them to see if you are allergic to any ingredient within the vaccine, especially with vaccines as new as these.