Some Washington health care workers who have received their first Covid vaccine shot say they’re participating in a study that’s tracking how they respond to the vaccine.
The V-Safe program from the Centers for Disease Control allows health care workers to report any side effects they suspect could be from the vaccine.Dr. Ellen Schur from UW Medicine’s Diabetes Institute says she downloaded a smart phone app that allows her to share data and fill out surveys from the CDC.
“What the V-Safe program is going to do is send me little text check-ins every day for the next week and then less frequently. I’ll give them any information about side effects that I’m having. Then, over time as these data accumulate and when later waves of people are being vaccinated from the general public, we’ll be able to refine our information that we give to our patients," she said.
Information such as what vaccine recipients can expect to feel in the hours and days after they get their shots.
“I feel very privileged to have gotten the vaccine and I also feel a sense of duty as a physician and a researcher to continue to our knowledge about this vaccine since we are among the first people, outside of a clinical trial, to receive it," Schur said.
People who get the shots can go to the CDC website to register. They’ll be asked to give their names and contact information, as well as the vaccine they received and when.