“Based on a big trial of 2,260 adolescents in that age range, the vaccine was incredibly effective,” says Kara Kelly, MD, Chair of the Roswell Park Oishei Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Program.
Let's Start to Heal
While many people are jumping at the chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine, others have been a little bit more hesitant because they're so new in the relative terms of drug development.
Regardless of whether additional booster doses will be needed later, the benefits of having the vaccine provided some immediate rewards.
Lavon Amos is no stranger to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. He’s been treated twice for cancer here, first for prostate cancer in 1999 and later for multiple myeloma, and has been cancer-free since 2015. But when notified that he was eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine, he hesitated.
“I read the word ‘malignant’ and was in total shock. They had done a biopsy on the tumor to be safe and found that it was cancerous. I can’t even begin to describe the shock I was in. The diagnosis hit me like a ton of bricks.”
For some women, routine mammograms are showing swollen lymph nodes in the upper arm and armpit area on the side where they’ve received their vaccine. But that’s not a reason to be alarmed.
When gathering information to help you make informed decisions about vaccination for yourself and your family, it’s important to follow the science and weigh your own personal risks and benefits.
“This is a great way to connect with people, especially right now, when I feel like connecting with people is difficult. We’re not meeting too many strangers right now during COVID-19. It allows individuals to really express themselves.”
"You can’t let your guard down for a moment, especially when you work with immunocompromised patients. I was afraid if I had been exposed, I could be passing this on to our patients.”
Several years ago, I noticed a bump behind my knee. It began interfering with my daily activities, so I had my doctor take a look at it. She said it was just a cyst and nothing to worry about, but sent me to an orthopedist for further testing.
Why do we need two doses of these vaccines? Isn’t one enough? Wouldn’t we be able to get more people vaccinated — and faster — if we all took just one dose?