COVID-19
If you want to find out who offers COVID-19 vaccines in Wasco and Sherman counties, look here. If you want general information about preventing COVID-19 and taking care of yourself when you’re sick with COVID-19, look here.
You can once again order free COVID-19 tests delivered to your house from COVIDtests.gov.
COVID-19 Vaccines
Vaccines are one of the most important and effective ways you can protect yourself, your family, your neighbors and your community. They are safe and effective against severe disease, hospitalization, and death.
NCPHD has the new 2024-25 Moderna vaccine. We plan to have the Novavax vaccine. Click here to learn how these two vaccines are different. We can vaccinate anyone 6 months and older. To book an appointment, call 541-506-2600.
Click here for the current COVID-19 vaccine recommendations from the CDC.
Why do you need to get another vaccine this year if you already got a COVID-19 vaccine in the past?
COVID vaccine protection decreases over time, so getting a new vaccine this year will help your immune system respond strongly when it sees the virus again. Also, the new vaccines are updated to give you better protection from the strains of virus that are currently circulating. Getting a new vaccine every year adds layers of immunity.
Vaccine Side Effects
Some people may have side effects after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. These could include: pain or redness where the shot was given, mild fever or chills, feeling tired, headache, or muscle aches. Even if you don’t experience any side effects, the vaccine is still working.
Types of COVID-19 Vaccines
There are two types of vaccines against COVID-19: mRNA vaccine and protein subunit vaccine. Both types of vaccine are very effective at both preventing COVID-19 infections and preventing you from going to the hospital if you do get sick with COVID-19. Neither vaccine can give you COVID-19. Neither vaccine has any live virus in it. Neither vaccine can affect or interact with our DNA nor change or influence our genes.
Pfizer’s Comirnaty vaccine and Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine are mRNA vaccines. To learn how mRNA vaccines work, see here. Some people might prefer an mRNA vaccine because they can be more quickly updated to match the strains of virus that are currently circulating.
Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine. This is the same type of vaccine as the DTaP, shingles, and HPV vaccines. To learn how protein subunit vaccines work, see here. Some people might prefer a protein subunit vaccine because they seems to have fewer side effects after vaccination than mRNA vaccines.
COVID-19 Vaccine Safety
All COVID-19 vaccines underwent rigorous testing to make sure they were safe for people to take and effective at preventing COVID-19 disease. The FDA, CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Pharmacists Association, American Nurses Association, and many more organizations all agree that COVID-19 vaccines are extremely safe and effective.
Over 13.64 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered worldwide with only a handful of negative reactions. This is a very good sign that the vaccine is safe.
How could they develop the COVID-19 vaccine so quickly and still know it’s safe?
The COVID-19 vaccines were able to be developed quickly because:
Drug companies already knew a lot about coronaviruses and mRNA technology. Scientists have studied coronaviruses similar to the COVID-19 virus for over 50 years. mRNA technology has existed for over 10 years.
Vaccine developers did some steps at the same time, so they could be efficient. For example, while the vaccines were still being tested, they built factories to make the vaccine. That meant they could start making vaccine as soon as it was approved.
Lots of people were willing to volunteer to test the vaccine. This meant they got results very quickly.
COVID-19 vaccine was well funded. Developing vaccines can be very expensive, but because it was important, federal governments all over the world were willing to support vaccine development.
All of this meant vaccine developers were able to get the vaccine out quickly - without sacrificing safety.
For more information on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, see here.
COVID-19 Treatments
CDC video which explains in English and American Sign Language how treatments work and where to get them.
If you are very likely to get very sick from a COVID-19 infection, you might want to take a drug to treat COVID-19. There are three medicines to treat COVID-19. All of them work best when you start taking them as soon as possible after you get sick. The drugs stop the COVID-19 virus from making copies in your body, which means you get less sick and are less likely to need to go to the hospital. You will need to see a doctor to get a prescription for any COVID-19 treatment.
The medicines to treat COVID-19 are:
Paxlovid - a pill that you take at home for 5 days. It treats people who are at least 12 years old and who do not have serious liver or kidney diseases.
Remdesivir (also called Veklury) - an injection. If the doctor prescribes this drug you will have to go into a clinic once a day for 3 days in a row. It can treat adults and children, including children as young as a month old.
Molnupiravir (also called Lagevrio) - a pill that you take at home for 5 days. It is only for people who are at least 18 years old, and who are not pregnant or breastfeeding.
There is information here about getting help paying for COVID-19 treatments.