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Tag: national immunization awareness month

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August is National Immunization Awareness Month. Vaccination is the best protection against serious diseases.
Image created by Yvonne Lee from CDC NIAM promotional graphics and an American Association of Immunologists vaccine handout.

August is National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM). Regular immunizations are an important part of staying healthy. Vaccines help provide immunity before potential exposure to diseases. Vaccines help your body create antibodies to fight off infections by training your immune system to recognize and destroy harmful pathogens before they can cause serious illness. To learn more about how vaccines work, check out this great video from Nature - which you can also share with your patients:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a great resource for information on immunizations for healthcare professionals and patients. The CDC’s Vaccines and Immunizations website provides information on immunization schedules for children and adults, information about pregnancy and vaccination, as well as a list of recommended vaccines for travelers. Their website also provides a wealth of information for healthcare professions including clinical resources, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations and guidelines, immunization schedules, vaccine storage, administration protocols, and patient education resources. 

Himmelfarb Library also has a number of immunization resources available! Next time you’re in the library, check out our current book display on the first floor with immunization and vaccine-related resources. If you see something of interest, ask at the circulation desk to check out the book.

Picture of books on immunization on display in Himmelfarb's display case.

We also have some great e-books available on the topic of vaccines:

Published on
Monkeypox, COVID, the seasonal flu, shingles, tetanus, HPV. Now it is a critical time to be vaccinated. If you are not sure where to start on the topic, a good question to ask yourself is: “which vaccinations do my patients need?” 

The CDC has a vaccine index that clearly outlines recommended vaccines based on age group, co-existing conditions, healthcare workers, international travel, and immigrants and refugees.. The CDCalso provides details on who should not be vaccinated. 

The CDC includes a clinical & professional practice resource which provides insights on talking with patients about the importance of vaccines, provider requirements and support, interim clinical considerations, and Covid tracking and reporting systems. It also includes articles and guidelines for children as young as six months and older. 

If you are feeling wary or overwhelmed with the number of sources and information about vaccinations, there are a few simple ways to spread the word about the importance of vaccinations. In addition to educating others, be transparent about the life cycle of a vaccine. The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has an article on Evaluating Vaccine Safety, which might assist in easing any fears of the unknown about vaccines. Let your patients know that each vaccine has to undergo a series of clinical trials and reviews before it can be approved. 

Are you interested in becoming a provider of the COVID-19 vaccine? Find more information and see if you qualify on the CDC’s How to Enroll page.


Last but not least, if you have been recently vaccinated take the time to document the date, and the type of vaccine you receive. If you are uncertain where such information should be kept, a spreadsheet or notebook should suffice just fine depending on if you prefer print or electronic format. For your patients, make sure their records are up to date in their file. If you are uncertain of your own previous vaccination records, check with your current or previous health care provider for records.  

Published on
Picture of a mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine vial.
Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

If you have watched the news during the past year, you’ve likely heard about mRNA vaccines. You may even have had a more personal connection to mRNA vaccines. If you received either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, you received an mRNA vaccine! Perhaps you heard that GW served as a clinical trial site for the Moderna mRNA vaccine, and may have volunteered for the clinical trial. 

How do these vaccines work? Traditional vaccines trigger immune responses in the body through injecting “a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies” (CDC, 2021). mRNA vaccines work differently. Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is a type of ribonucleic acid (RNA) that uses information in cells to create a blueprint for protein production within the body (NLM, NIH, HHS, 2021). mRNA vaccines introduce “a piece of mRNA that corresponds to a viral protein, usually a piece of a protein found on the virus’s outer membrane” (NLM, NIH, HHS, 2021). Your body uses this mRNA as a recipe, and cells start to make this viral protein. “As part of a normal immune response, the immune system recognizes that the protein is foreign and produces specialized proteins called antibodies” (NLM, NIH, HHS, 2021). These antibodies protect against infection “by recognizing individual viruses or pathogens, attaching to them, and marking the pathogens for destruction” (NLM, NIH, HHS, 2021). 

The surface of the COVID-19 virus (Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2) is covered in “spike proteins,” a glycoprotein that helps the virus enter a host cell by binding to a receptor on the surface of a host cell and fusing the viral and host cell membranes together. mRNA COVID-19 vaccines teach the body how to make this spike protein, (CDC, 2021). Once vaccinated, your body begins to recognize this spike protein as an intruder and begins to produce antibodies to fight off these spike proteins. Once you have these antibodies, they will be able to identify these spike proteins should you be exposed to the COVID-19 virus (Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2). If you do have a Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 exposure, these antibodies will quickly identify the spike proteins surrounding the virus, attach themselves to these spike proteins, and destroy the COVID-19 virus before it is able to cause serious illness (NLM, NIH, HHS, 2021).

The following video produced by the Mayo Clinic provides a straightforward overview of how mRNA vaccines work against COVID-19:

Many people believe that mRNA vaccines can alter their DNA. However, this is not possible through mRNA vaccines. Once the mRNA has delivered the instructions of how to make the protein to your cells, the mRNA is broken down fairly quickly and “it never enters the nucleus of your cells, where your DNA is kept” (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2021). Since the mRNA never interacts with your DNA, your DNA will not be altered in any way from an mRNA vaccine.

While mRNA vaccines may seem new, they have actually been researched for decades. The first report of a successful mRNA vaccine was reported in 1990 in animals (Pardi et al., 2018). mRNA vaccines have distinct benefits over traditional vaccines. Among these benefits are safety and production. Because the vaccine does not contain the virus itself, there is no risk for infection. Production of mRNA vaccines have the “potential for rapid inexpensive and scalable manufacturing”(Pardi et al., 2018), as has been demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a more in-depth scientific review of pre-COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, Pardi, Hogan, Porter, and Weissman’s review article titled mRNA Vaccines - A New Era in Vaccinology provides an excellent overview of mRNA vaccines. 

References:

Centers for Disease Control. (2021). Understanding mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mRNA.html?s_cid=11344:mrna%20vaccine%20technology:sem.ga:p:RG:GM:gen:PTN:FY21

Mayo Clinic Staff. (July 31, 2021). Different types of COVID-19 vaccines: How they work. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/different-types-of-covid-19-vaccines/art-20506465

Mayo Clinic. (2021, February 8). Mayo Clinic Insights: How mRNA Vaccines Work . Mayo Clinic YouTube Channel. https://youtu.be/RvR_yf_haqQ

Pardi, N., Hogan, M. J., Porter, F. W., & Weissman, D. (2018). mRNA vaccines-a new era in vaccinology. Nature Reviews. Drug Discovery, 17(4), 261–279. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2017.243

U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services. (2021). What are mRNA vaccines and how do they work? https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/therapy/mrnavaccines/

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