Sky Lakes Medical Center | Live Smart | Early Spring 2021

SkyLakes.org | LIVE smart 3 Smart Protect yourself Get the facts about the COVID-19 vaccine—and why you should get it page 3 Plant the seeds 5 steps to take now for better health this spring page 4 Early Spring 2021 Information in Live Smart comes from a wide range of medical experts. If you have any concerns or questions about specific content that may affect your health, please contact your health care provider. Models may be used in photos and illustrations. 2021 © Coffey Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. On the cover: The hopefulness of spring awaits in the lakes of the nearby Cascade Mountains and beyond. LIVE smart COVID-19 COVID-19 VACCINES Get the facts The COVID-19 vaccine is your best shot at protecting yourself from the new coronavirus. Health care experts believe that getting a COVID-19 vaccine may help keep you from getting seriously ill even if you do get COVID-19. Getting GET MORE ANSWERS Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, testing and more at SkyLakes.org/ COVIDResources . vaccinated yourself may also protect people around you, particularly people at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19. Vaccines work by tricking the immune system to fight off an infection. They do this in different ways. Some, such as those for chicken pox and measles, use weakened versions of the virus that are unable to cause illness. Others, influenza vaccines, for example, use a dead virus. The COVID-19 vaccines use pieces of the virus to target a specific part of the infectious virus to stimulate your immune system. Here are answers to three common questions regarding the COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 2 After getting a COVID-19 vaccine, will I test positive for COVID-19 on a viral test? No. None of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines can cause you to test positive on tests which are used to see if you have a current infection. If your body develops an immune response—the goal of vaccination— there is a possibility you may test positive on some antibody tests, which indicate you had a previous infection and that you may have some level of protection against the virus. 1 Can a COVID-19 vaccine make me sick with COVID-19? No. None of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines contain the live virus that causes COVID-19. This means that a COVID-19 vaccine cannot make you sick with COVID-19. It typically takes a few weeks for the body to build protection against the virus that causes COVID-19 after vaccination. That means it’s possible a person could be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 just before or just after vaccination and still get sick. This is because the vaccine has not had enough time to provide protection. 3 Will a COVID-19 vaccination protect me from getting sick with COVID-19? Yes! COVID-19 vaccination works by teaching your immune system how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19, and this protects you from getting sick with COVID-19. Being protected from getting sick is important because, even though many people with COVID-19 have only a mild illness, others may get a severe illness, have long- term health effects, or even die. There is no way to know how COVID-19 will affect you, even if you don’t have an increased risk of developing severe complications. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Robin Bartlett, RN, a Sky Lakes nurse, gives David H. Panossian, MD, a Klamath Falls pulmonologist, his second COVID-19 dose.