Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions
On Dec. 14, 2020, the United States began vaccinating people against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 illness. The vaccine rollout has been very fast, as the virus was only identified for the first time in November 2019. While impressive, this speed has also left a lot of people with a lot of questions. The questions range from the practicalâhow will I get vaccinated?âto the scientificâhow do these vaccines even work?
A successful vaccination campaign relies on a large enough group of people getting the vaccine in order to achieve what is known as herd immunity. While that exact number is still unknown, it is estimated the 80-90% of the population must be immuneâeither by vaccination or prior exposure to the virusâin order to achieve herd immunity. This means itâs extremely important that people feel confident in the vaccines and vaccination process.