 I'm Sharon Thomas Yarbrough and welcome to Sister Power and today we're going to be talking about fear the virus, not the vaccine. And a very special guest is Dr. Teresa R. Jacobs. She's a board certified family medicine physician providing the highest quality comprehensive healthcare to the uninsured and underserved at risk population at Oakhurst Medical Center. Welcome Dr. Jacobs to Sister Power. Well thank you Sharon thank you so much for having me it's a pleasure. Thank you well you you know we want to let everyone you are in Georgia right now am I correct? That is absolutely correct this is it this is the place for me right now. It really is and we want to start off by congratulating congratulations to newly elected senators Warnock and Ossoff. Yes yes whoo-hoo. Well yes a special thank you to Stacey Abrams job well done. Absolutely absolutely she had put she has put on an incredible program to get out to vote she was in the churches and the recreation centers she was in our neighborhoods they did a wonderful wonderful job registering folks that had never voted before so they got us out to vote and I think they did a fantabulous job hats off to her hats off and congratulations to those we have to send it now. Yes absolutely absolutely so now I believe we can get some things done health care for those that are lacking health care now's a good time to make sure that we get that agenda item up and across the board and hopefully we can get some low premiums at this particular time and also the thing my daughter is extremely excited about maybe some of those school loans of hers to be paid off. Okay absolutely I'm glad you put in the word out so again we want to congratulate senator Warnock and Ossoff there he is right there I am so proud of Georgia that's a proud that people were able to get out and vote thank you so much there we are so you know Dr. Jacob there has been you know I think today we have well over 300,000 people who have died in the USA of this coronavirus and so we're going to talk about here the virus not the vaccine so I want to ask you a few questions okay will this vaccine give me COVID-19? I think that's an excellent question frequently people ask me that question the good news here is that this particular vaccine does not have the COVID virus inside of it it is actually what they call a messenger RNA so it has no parts of the virus in it once it's injected into your body it creates these antibodies like you have COVID but the antibodies come out and they give you immunity which is absolutely fantabulous so no you do not get the COVID virus from the vaccine. Good information was the vaccine made too quickly? You know that's another really great question but let's just say this that messenger RNA vaccines believe it or not they've been working on this for over 30 years guys over 30 years in the early 1990s they started working on this particular platform for viruses and the fact now that they actually have a method now where they have create some genetic material and make the body thinks the virus is there and allow these antibodies to build up this is fantabulous great news because with this platform now it means that we no longer have to wait two three four five years for a vaccine now so now we have the science we have the methodology that they've been working on for over 30 years here it is now in this COVID vaccine I think it's fantabulous. That's wonderful news you know you and I had a conversation last week about my girlfriend who's one of the top ER positions in Los Angeles and she came out of retirement because of the coronavirus and this is what she said and I want you to give me your thoughts I don't think people who don't actually see the devastation of this disease firsthand should be putting anything out there disparaging the vaccines in any way I want to hear your thoughts about that as well. Yeah I agree because you know I'm I'm not I don't work in the hospital but I work in a primary care clinic and so are a number of my patients have they been affected with COVID absolutely have they struggled and had issues or complications after the virus absolutely these are folks 30 40 years old healthy before the virus and now that some of them are struggling to breathe they're on inhalers that they've never been on some of them now have diabetes and they never had any of that before and if I'm going to get real personal here I've had two aunts to actually die in 2020 of COVID-19 I have a brother and his wife that were admitted at the same time into the hospital with COVID-19 they're now out just they've been discharged they're doing better but neither one of them are back to baseline and it's been about three and a half almost four weeks now so this is a disease of virus that are affecting black and brown folks at a astronomical rate and so before you knock this vaccine I want you to be knowledgeable as to what the vaccine is and then also understand how it's affecting our communities. I'm so sorry to hear about you know you losing your aunt I mean this you know unfortunately I've had a friend tell me they have lost 11 members one is too big but you know I can't even wrap my head around 11 yeah yeah those members yeah yeah that's that's horrible yeah that's tough well what are the likely side effects the likely side effects is number one maybe a little pain around the injection site we get that with most vaccines right when I got my flu shot there it was a day later a little soreness so you may get a little soreness around the injection site some folks may have a little low grade fever some may suffer some little muscle aches and maybe a little fatigue but within 24 to 48 hours all those symptoms are gone so mild symptoms mild symptoms well tell us about your journey with taking the vaccination taking the vaccine yeah I am about nine days out I took I got the Moderna vaccine last Tuesday and the first day the following day that Wednesday I had a little soreness around the injection site but I didn't have anything else guys I had no fever no chills no muscle aches nothing and as I tell my daughter you know I don't have any strange things going out of my neck I don't have a rash I you know I'm still clothing my right mind as the church folks say so I haven't had any bad side effects all of my peers and colleagues that I have also gotten the vaccine none of us have experienced any traumatic side effects from it so so far so good I'm going to get the second one on January 26 and you can check in with me I'll tell you how that goes as well oh that sounds good you know I went on your your Facebook page and I found this chart about Moderna and Pfizer yes you have a chart can you walk us through that tell us about that it's on the screen right now yeah and it's the biggest difference because a lot of folks asked me well which which one is better than the other and what you have to understand is that neither one is really better than the other because the platform is the exact same platform the science is the same science except for Pfizer there when they did their formulation they did not make some adjustments for the temperature so theirs have to be at that sub freezing temperature minus 90 in order for it to stay stored as far as Moderna that is not the issue you can keep it at the same temperature that you keep all of your vaccines the other difference is is that the Pfizer that's in 21 days from day one to the second dose Moderna is 28 days apart from the first vaccine to the second one now somebody may ask me but it looks like Moderna has more of it because the micrograms is a little bit more well the studies have shown that there's not much difference in far as the efficacy or a better way to say it is the amount of antibodies that is mounted in your immune system from getting the injection it's about the same so there's not very much different between the two so I just got whatever was available at my hospital so I didn't really care which one it was long as I got one of them oh that's great when we're here with Dr. Jacobs and it's about fear the virus and not the vaccine so I have a question for you Dr. Jacobs yes I already had not me but this is if someone asked your question I already had COVID-19 or I had a positive antibody test do I still need to get the vaccine so the answer to the question is yes but with a little caveat to it once you get COVID-19 or have that positive test we now know that you will have antibodies in your system maybe about 40 to 60 days after the infection itself so that means you have some protection up to maybe about 90 days so they're suggesting that that all of us or anyone that tests positive for COVID that you wait about 90 days then you go ahead and get the vaccine because after those 60 to 90 days you're not going to have any immunity they've shown that in all the studies that after the infection 90 days is going to be maxed that you may have immunity so it's best that you go ahead and get that vaccine probably somewhere around 90 days wow that's great information good information to know can it be given with other vaccines no because we've had a now and let me tell you all something for years we have been preaching about this fluce vaccine and I've had people come in my office with all kinds of it I can't take it it gives me the fluce I don't want to make people I can't do it but this year for the first time ever I've had a line of folks standing in line wanting a flu shot so that's one good thing that has happened I've got all these folks adults that have gotten taking the flu shot but having said that you need two weeks prior to any vaccine so you can get the flu vaccine today but you got to wait two weeks before you get the COVID vaccine so it has to be a two-week window between each of those vaccines so no you cannot get both of them at the same time you have to space them out for about two weeks okay great information the vaccine this vaccine has never been used before in humans how do I know it is safe yeah that's a good question uh you get we get that all the time so actually the first injections went out started out in March of 2020 guys so we're almost a year out now so and so far so good we've had a few folks that may have had some allergic reactions but for the most part uh for all of these months now we haven't had anybody to have any major uh issues outside of those handful of folks that have had maybe uh that have had some allergic reaction so uh so true they have started uh back in March of 2020 they've been given it to humans um in the clinical trials that was phase one phase two phase three they've got up to well over 80 000 folks y'all that have gotten it now we've up to two million additional folks that have gotten vaccinated after or doing the trials now so you know you've got all of those folks and uh the vast majority of us are doing extremely well that's great news you know we're talking with Dr. Jacobs fear the virus not the vaccine I'm loving this information for our for the masses out there what about children and pregnant women so that's a great question um uh unfortunately the uh vaccines are down to the age of 16 and so uh they did not do any trials of clinical trials in children below their age of 16 uh one is at 16 the other one is at 18 years of age so they didn't do any clinical trials in children which is par for the course they usually start them off in adults and then they gradually start adding children in clinical trials so those clinical trials have started for Pfizer and Moderna in October of 2020 so we don't have the data out yet for the children but we should be getting that pretty soon they're looking at making it safe for kids down to the age of 12 now pregnant women uh because you're pregnant that is not a reason for you not to get the vaccine um they what they're asking you to do really is have a good conversation with your OB doctor talk about it way out the pros and cons if you're somebody that uh before you got pregnant you had diabetes you had high blood pressure or you were morbidly uh obese or overweight or you have asthma or COPD those are comorbid conditions that can cause you to have complications uh with COVID so you might want to talk to your OB doctor and weigh it out as to whether or not you should uh get the uh COVID vaccine they have discovered that it does cross the barrier so it doesn't affect the one born child so they know that so uh is it safe it looks like it's going to be fairly safe for pregnant women to get as well yeah that is such a um I'm sure that's a challenging situation for pregnant women because you're thinking about your child and yourself yes are there any other questions that pregnant women should ask their position about the the vaccine well I think that um the the biggest thing is that us doctors ought to be asking her you know about her past medical history okay whether or not she's gotten appropriate prenatal care uh did she get her what vaccines has she had so you can find out if she's been protected uh from other uh illnesses that could come and that could you could protect you if you get the vaccine but it really is our job as physicians to talk to the patient glean or get a great history from that patient find out you know about diabetes and high blood pressure and all of those core morbid conditions uh to find let's weigh it out and then make that decision along with the patient uh there are pregnant women that are getting the vaccine and they are doing very well so that's actually good news they're going to be more studies that are going to be coming out real soon uh so you want to play the wait and see game I can understand that oh I like that okay yes there's those physicians there are more questions that you need to ask our pregnant women all right can patients of color feel safe getting this vaccine you know every brown and black and Native American person is very concerned about which we have good reasons to be absolutely yeah absolutely and what I like about the Pfizer and Moderna as well as there are a couple more studies uh vaccines that are going to come out more houses got one uh cooking that's going to be out uh fairly soon but they everybody all of the researchers were very concerned about this particular question about brown and black folks they want to make sure you feel comfortable so in those research trials they had almost 30 percent of folks of color and so and they did very well in it which I thought was absolutely wonderful almost 30 percent in each of those groups and of course more house has a huge uh group of uh folks of color that are participated in their current trials right now so that uh people can feel safe uh about the vaccine that are being put out for COVID-19 so lots of great data out there but almost 30 percent in both groups and I think that's fantastic that is because no one has died from taking the vaccine so far no and that's the big thing and that but but remember look at all of the folks that have died from COVID though yeah right you don't have one person out of the millions of people that have gotten the vaccine that one has died but when you have over 350 000 Americans that have died from this virus really you need to think about that and weigh out your risks and benefits yeah yeah we want to get a handle on this you know coronavirus has just turned our world upside down absolutely absolutely and so I want you everyone to be mindful even about the new strains that you hear about as well the vaccines seem to be uh affected against the new strains that are out there so but I just want folks to be careful at what they do and make a educated decision my job is not to convince you to get the vaccine but I want you to be informed and so you're educated about why you're getting it or why you're not getting it great what about the allergic reactions so there have been a handful of folks that have gotten allergic reactions several of them already had histories of allergic reaction to the point where they carried epi pens with them and so that means that they already knew that they had an issue uh uh with allergic reactions to vaccines and so what they're suggesting if you have a an allergic reaction so bad to something where your doctor has advised you to carry an epi pen then you need to talk to your allergist before you decide to get the vaccine and your allergist is probably the person that should administer the vaccine uh if you so decide to desire to get it now if you have just a allergic reaction to say seafood or to peanuts uh those folks are still safe to get the vaccine it's still recommended but again have a good conversation with your primary care provider let them know what your concerns are so that they can address it and then they can make sure that they monitor you for not just the 15 minutes but they monitor you for at least the 30 minutes and uh they will have all of the equipment they need just in case you do have an allergic reaction yes we're here with Dr. Jacobs hear the virus and not the vaccine great information and another question I have for you is this vaccine effective against the new strains of the virus absolutely they have uh and you know what's interesting um they didn't know that we had the strains in the united states because they really weren't looking for the new strains but now that they're looking for them they're discovering that uh it is pretty um prevalent in these united states believe it or not and they're showing that this these both of the vaccines are effective against the new strains and there's several new strains there's not just one there's several but it appears as if yeah that's one out of the uh not only the uk but from africa as well and uh it appears as if the vaccines are effective against both uh all of the strains to date my goodness well you know as of today 365 625 total death in the us wow that that is just overwhelming so Dr. Jacobs let's round this out and let's bring everything to kind of a close but i want you to tell the people something that we have not spoken to let's put people in the comfort zone where we want them to fear the virus people still wear your mask still social distance still wash your hands and what else can we do yeah i think that if there's an opportunity for you to get the vaccine i want you to seriously consider to get the vaccine and i want you to seriously consider talking to your friends and your relatives your church members i want you to seriously consider getting this vaccine because it is the only real tool that we have to compact to combat this virus this deadly virus and so don't you want to go on cruises still don't you want to travel i'm missing my cruise that i got i go on two cruises every year don't you want to travel don't you want to be able to see folks face and their nose and their mouths some of you us want to date again so let's think about getting the virus the vaccine think about think really long and hard about it because once you get the vaccine you'll have a little bit more freedom but until we can get what they call herd immunity we're about 70 to 80 percent of us have antibodies against the virus we are going to be walking around guys with these masks we're going to still be doing social distancing and we're going to still be washing our hands so think about what you want to 2021 to look like and if you've got some goals for 2021 some new year's resolutions if you get married this year or whatever it is that you decided to do this year you want to have those big celebrations where you can touch each other where you can hug each other so don't you want to hug each other again don't you want to touch each other again consider the vaccine consider it i love that are there any additional information that people can obtain or are you coming out with a newsletter of some kind where we can go and then access this information of any kind yeah i'm going to give you a couple of things i have a few videos that are out there one is the vaccine and bill's pausy because i've got a lot of questions about that asking if the vaccine causes bill pausy but you can go to my facebook page i have several videos there you can also go to cdc because it is user friendly you can print those handouts off and read those take them to your family members and your friends and read up on the latest and the greatest from the cdc website what i will advise you not to do do not go to social media and whatever folks and believe everything that's on social media you've got to be careful because everything that's on the internet is not true oh dr jake thank you thank you thank you for giving sister power audiences pertinent information and everyone out there remember fear the virus and not the vaccine oceans of aloha peace and blessings and thank you again dr jake it's aloha aloha