By The Sheboygan County Division of Public Health

Vaccine distribution:

• The first groups to receive the vaccine are frontline health care workers providing direct care to COVID-19 patients and people living and working in long term care facilities.

• The next groups to receive the vaccine will be essential workers. The state disaster medical advisory committee (SDMAC) is still making the determination on the definition of essential workers.

• If you have health conditions that put you at greater risk for COVID-19 complications, please contact your health care provider and they will work with you to get you vaccinated when the vaccine is available to you.

• As vaccine supply increases, recommendations for who can get vaccinated will change. We will communicate the expanded recommendations to you through our daily COVID-19 updates, and our website.

Vaccine safety:

• Vaccines approved for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) still go through the same steps as any other vaccine to ensure its safety.

• Phase One: A small group of healthy volunteers receive the vaccine to test for safety and potential side effects.

• Phase Two: Several hundred people representative of the U.S. population receive the vaccine to test how diverse immune systems respond.

• Phase Three: Thousands of people receive the vaccine to test widespread effectiveness, side effects, and safety.

• The FDA licenses a vaccine ONLY if it’s safe and effective and the benefits outweigh the risks. For any COVID-19 vaccine, the FDA will also review two months of follow-up data after volunteers get their second vaccine doses.

Additional vaccine information:

• A vaccine takes a very small and harmless part of a pathogen, like COVID-19, and teaches your body how to respond before you come in contact with the virus in real life.

• The vaccine will likely cause you to have a sore arm and potentially a fever. That is a normal part of getting vaccinated.

• It will take months to reach community immunity. We must continue to stay home, wear a mask, physically distance, and practice good hand hygiene.

• You need both doses to have full protection.

• Ask your vaccinator when you need to come back for the second dose before you leave the vaccination clinic.

For more information, please visit the Sheboygan County website.