COVID-19 Staff FAQs: Vaccine information

Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines are now available.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine - NHS website

OUH COVID-19 vaccine information - including videos made by our own staff

Both vaccines have been shown to be safe and offer high levels of protection, and have been given regulatory approval by the MHRA.

The Government has in principle secured access to seven different vaccine candidates, across four different vaccine types, totalling over 357 million doses.

This includes:

• 40 million doses of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine
• 100m doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine
• 7 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, which is also being assessed by the MHRA.

No. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has not advised a preference between the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in any specific population, stating that "both give very high protection against severe disease... and both vaccines have good safety profiles".

Our vaccine programme is offering vaccines in line with the supply of vaccines available to us.

You will have to have two doses of the same vaccine and in certain circumstances we may advise you have a certain vaccine.

Yes. The MHRA, the official UK regulator authorising licensed use of medicines and vaccines by healthcare professionals, has said these vaccines are safe and highly effective.

The NHS would not offer any COVID-19 vaccinations to the public until it is safe to do so.

As with any medicine, vaccines are highly regulated products. There are checks at every stage in the development and manufacturing process, and continued monitoring once it has been authorised and is being used in the wider population.

The MHRA has some useful information on their website:

Vaccines and vaccine safety - gov.uk

The Public Assessment Reports contain all the scientific information about the trials and information on trial participants.

For the Pfizer vaccine, participants included 9.6 percent black/African, 26.1 percent Hispanic/Latino and 3.4 percent Asian.

For the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, 10.1 percent of trial recipients were Black and 3.5 percent Asian.

There is no evidence either of the vaccines will work differently in different ethnic groups.

Medicines, including vaccines, are highly regulated - and that is no different for the approved COVID-19 vaccine.

There are a number of enablers that have made this groundbreaking medical advancement possible and made it possible to develop them relatively quickly compared to other medicines.

1. The different phases of the clinical trial were delivered to overlap instead of running sequentially which sped up the clinical process.
   
2. There was a rolling assessment of data packages as soon as they were available so experts at the MHRA could review as the trial was being delivered, ask questions along the way and request extra information as needed - as opposed to getting all information at the end of a trial.
   
3. Clinical trials managed to recruit people very quickly as a global effort meant thousands of people were willing to volunteer.

The vaccine is known to cause short-term and reversible side effects. These include having a sore arm, feeling nauseous and generally tired. It is unlikely that these side effects could result in someone breaking their fast, however if someone felt unwell it may be necessary.

One consideration could include booking your vaccine closer to the time of breaking your fast to minimise the chance of this.

The COVID-19 vaccination offer is an evergreen one which means that once you have been offered a vaccine, that offer remains open.

However, it is important to be aware the vaccine minimises the risk of developing COVID-19 and transmitting it to all those you come in contact with.

The COVID-19 vaccine is our best form of protection for you, your family and community, so we would not recommend delaying it.

Vaccine trials have included a diverse community in the UK, Brazil and South Africa for the Oxford Vaccine with no safety concerns.

Most of the trials with Pfizer vaccine were in the US, but had a very diverse population with no concerns.

• a previous dose of the same COVID-19 vaccine
• any component (excipient) of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine contains polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is from a group of known allergens commonly found in medicines and also in household goods and cosmetics.

Known allergy to PEG is extremely rare, but would contraindicate receipt of this vaccine. (Sellaturay P et al. 2020).

Patients with undiagnosed PEG allergy may have a history of unexplained anaphylaxis or of anaphylaxis to multiple classes of drugs.

The AstraZeneca vaccine does not contain PEG, and is a suitable alternative.

The vaccine is inactivated and there is no contraindication to its use in immunocompromised individuals or those with autoimmune disease.

Those in clinically vulnerable patient groups are high priority for the vaccine.

Getting your COVID-19 vaccination as soon as you can, should protect you and may help to protect your family and those you care for.

The COVID-19 vaccine should help reduce the rates of serious illness and save lives and will therefore reduce pressure on the NHS and social care services.

The vaccine is given as an injection into your upper arm.

Please see 'Coping with your COVID-19 vaccination' (pdf, 106 KB)

It is important to note that even when you have received both doses of the vaccine, you must continue to follow Government guidance on social distancing and wearing a face covering when you are in public places.

You must also to continue to follow the Trust's PPE guidance when you are at work.

Yes, they should get vaccinated. There is no evidence of any safety concerns from vaccinating individuals with a past history of COVID-19 infection, or with detectable COVID-19 antibody so people who have had COVID-19 disease (whether confirmed or suspected) can still receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

You can have the vaccine 28 days after you had a positive test for COVID-19 or 28 days after your symptoms started, so you may need to wait.

If you have been taking part in a vaccine trial please continue to do so until you are offered the approved COVID-19 vaccine.

Once you are offered a vaccination appointment, please contact your trial coordinator to ask whether you have received an active vaccine already or not.

There is no need to repeat your first dose. We suggest that you attend as planned for your second dose.

It is recommended to delay any dose of COVID vaccine until at least four weeks after the onset of COVID symptoms or a COVID diagnosis.

Although the available data do not indicate any harm to pregnancy, there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and immunisation (JCVI ) has advised that vaccination in pregnancy should be considered if the risk of exposure to SARS-CoV2 infection is high and cannot be avoided, or where the woman has underlying conditions that put them at very high risk of serious complications of COVID-19.

In these circumstances, clinicians should discuss the risks and benefits of vaccination with the woman, who should be told about the absence of safety data for the vaccine in pregnancy.

There is no material of foetal or animal origin in either vaccine. All ingredients are published in healthcare information on the MHRA's website.

For the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine information is available here.

For the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine information is available here.

Frontline health and social care workers at high individual risk of developing serious disease, or at risk of transmitting infection to vulnerable are considered of higher priority for vaccination than those at lower risk.

We have been undertaking risk assessments throughout the pandemic to identify individuals at greater risk and we will be using these as the basis for prioritising access to vaccines.

Guides in multiple languages for healthcare workers on vaccination.

Yes. The vaccine is available for staff from our PFI contractors who provide housekeeping, portering and catering services, medical and nursing students working on our sites and other contracted workers who are working at our hospitals.

They are being prioritised in the same way that our directly employed staff are, with those working in COVID areas being the first priority.

We have been undertaking risk assessments throughout the pandemic to identify individuals at higher risk.

These risk assessments include factors such as ethnic background and will be used as the basis for prioritising access to vaccines for colleagues over the coming weeks.

People with history of a severe allergy to the ingredients of the vaccines should not be vaccinated.

Only anticoagulant (blood thinning) medication may affect your ability to have the vaccine because of the injection. If you are taking warfarin please check your INR is within range.

If you are taking other medication it should not affect your ability to receive the vaccine.

The vaccine cannot give you COVID-19 infection, and two doses will reduce your chance of becoming seriously ill. However, you will need to continue to follow the guidance in your workplace, including wearing the correct PPE and taking part in the lateral flow testing programme.

For these vaccines, like lots of others, they have identified that some people might feel slightly unwell, but they report that no significant side effects have been observed in the tens of thousands of people involved in trials.

All patients will be provided with information on the vaccine they have received, how to look out for any side effects, and what to do if they do occur, including reporting them to the MHRA.

More information on possible side effects can be found on the NHS website.

Mild side effects such as pain at the injection site and symptoms such as headache and tiredness for a day commonly occur.

If you have more serious symptoms that you are worried about please seek medical advice from your GP or 111 as you would normally, as they may be unrelated to the vaccine.

For more acute side effects you can attend your nearest walk-in centre or Emergency Department.

If you develop any of the main COVID-19 symptoms such as a high temperature (≥37.80C), a new, continuous cough, or a loss or change to sense of smell or taste, ensure you self-isolate and arrange for a test. Please see the Staff Testing page.

There is a flow chart at the link below advising what to do if you have a fever within 48 hours of your COVID-19 vaccination:

Actions to take only if fever within 48 hours of COVID-19 vaccination (pdf, 47 KB)

The current guidance says not for three months - but this may change, as colleagues from Public Health England (PHE) are working on this.

A single dose of the vaccine does provide a good level of protection from COVID-19, but the second dose is important to ensure lasting protection.

People who have had COVID-19 previously can have the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, you should wait 28 days before the next dose of vaccine can be given to you.

Please do not attend your appointment as booked and we will contact you to reschedule your second dose.

The new medical advice is that the second dose of the vaccine remains effective when given up to 12 weeks after the first dose and should be given towards the end of this 12 week period.

This will help ensure that as many people as possible benefit from the first dose of the vaccine as soon as possible.

No. The vaccine will not cross-react with the lateral flow device (LFD). Therefore if your LFD is positive it is very likely that you have the COVID-19 infection.

You should arrange for a PCR swab to confirm the result of LFD. The vaccine takes one or two weeks to generate immunity therefore it is possible to contract the infection within two weeks of the vaccine.

There is unlikely to be any interference between two inactivated vaccines if given at the same time, and there are no specific safety concerns.

However the Influenza and COVID vaccines should ideally be separated by an interval of at least seven days, to avoid incorrect attribution of potential adverse events.