COVID-19 Vaccine Public Health Resources
COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments
- COVID-19 vaccination: Find out if it’s your turn
- Book vaccine appointment by phone; 833-540-0473
- City of Los Angeles COVID-19 Vaccine Registration
Should I Get The COVID-19 Vaccine?
In this video, Masada Homes Psychiatrist, Dr. Anandhi Narasinham, shares her COVID-19 vaccine experience and knowledge in hopes to ease any concerns anyone may have with getting vaccinated.
Other Resources & Information
- Join the “Protects Me, Protects You” Campaign
- COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Toolkit for Community-Based Organizations (CDC)
- COVID-19 Vaccination Communication Toolkit for Essential Workers (CDC)
- Covid Collaborative: COVID Collaborative is a National Assembly to tackle the COVID-19 crisis
- Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine: What to Expect
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health COVID-19 Vaccine Questions & Answers
1. What is the risk of contracting COVID-19 for individual who only receive the first dose
of the vaccine?
- The vaccine doesn’t work right away. You are not considered appropriately protected
after the first shot. - It takes up to two weeks after the second shot for your immune system to fully respond
to a vaccine and provide protection against an infectious disease. - Preliminary data suggest high vaccine efficacy in preventing COVID-19 following receipt of two doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech: 95.0% [95% CI: 90.3%, 97.6%]; Moderna: 94.1% [95% CI: 89.3%, 96.8%]). Limited data are currently available regarding the efficacy of a single dose. Patients should be counseled on the importance of completing the two-dose series with the same vaccine product to optimize
protection.
2. What is the risk, if any, of transmitting COVID-19 for individuals who receive the
vaccine?
- It’s important to know the COVID vaccine does not give you COVID. So you won’t spread the virus to someone in your household just because you got the shot. However, you could spread the virus to someone in your household after you get vaccinated because you could be exposed to COVID somewhere else.
- Since it takes a number of days before you receive immunity after getting the vaccine,
risk is still consider significant for transmitting, which is why continue to wearing face masks and practicing hand hygiene are important - There’s no evidence that any of the current Covid-19 vaccines can completely stop
people from being infected
3. How effective are the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for new emerging COVID-19 strains?
- Regarding Moderna: Moderna indicates its tests show that its COVID-19 vaccine offers protection against new variants of the coronavirus but that the vaccine is more effective against the variant first identified in the U.K. than the one found in South Africa. As a result, Moderna will test booster doses of its vaccine, including one that
would be tailored to fight strains that have recently emerged. - Regarding Pfizer: In recent research , scientists found that antibodies from people who had received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine showed “no reduction in neutralization activity” against a version of the virus that carries the N501Y mutation, which they created in the lab.
4. Does receiving the COVID-19 vaccine interfere with TB testing results?
- There is no immunologic reason to believe that a TB test will impact the effectiveness of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.
- According to the Vaccine Recommendations and Guidelines of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), inactive vaccines do not interfere with TB test results
5. Is there an estimated timeframe of when the vaccine may be approved and available for children under age 16?
- Researchers have yet to begin clinical trials in children under 12; trials in teens have just recently started. It’s not unusual in drug development to test adults first
- New drugs and vaccines are often tested on adults before children, whose bodies are still developing and can have different responses to medication.
- In the case of COVID-19, adults are also generally more at risk for severe complications. COVID vaccines for younger children especially may require different dosage levels or formulations than the adult versions. Kids generally can’t get the vaccine until it is authorized for their specific age. The result is a delay in children having access to the vaccine, creating uncertainty over whether kids will be vaccinated before the start of the 2021 school year.
6. What LA DPH public health education and outreach is happening for the communities our agencies serve? Our agencies serve people living in poverty or experiencing homelessness, communities of color, monolingual non-English speaking individuals. What resources are available to share with people we serve?
- The Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency (LHASA) and the Department of Public Health (DPH), are tracking and reporting the number of cases of COVID-19 among persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) and working with other county agencies and community partners to offer training on prevention and screening to homeless service providers, and to provide emergency shelter to PEH who need a safe place for quarantine or home isolation.
- Los Angeles Public Health, the California Department of Public Health is also providing materials and resources in Language and partnering with organizations that service immigrant, undocumented and monolingual communities.
- A partial list of the resources is noted from the link: COVID Vaccine Equity Collaboration Resources
7. What resources and strategies are available to engage with individuals that are hesitant/resistant to receiving the vaccine?
- Building Vaccine Confidence
- Updated regularly, LADPH offers http://VaccinateLACounty.com as a one-stop site for LA County residents to receive updated information about COVID 19 and COVID 19 vaccinations. Residents are encouraged to sign up for the Vaccine Newsletter to receive updates related to the COVID 19 vaccines.
- LADPH is also holding regular listening sessions with community members and advocates to build vaccine confidence, and reduce vaccination hesitancy by offering opportunity for LA residents to vocalize questions and concerns about vaccination administration efforts and related resources available to the public. For additional information contact Aizita Magana at AiMagana@ph.lacounty.gov
- The CDC’s COVID 19 Vaccine Communication Toolkit is also available for review and dissemination to the public: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/health-systems communication-toolkit.html
8. For vaccine distribution, we noticed that Phase 1B Tier 2 (Congregate settings with outbreak risk) was removed from the LA DPH website. What was the reason for this change in vaccine distribution? What does this mean for youth ages 16 - 21 in children’s residential settings (such as STRTPs) who were expected to be prioritized to access to the vaccine?
- Changes in vaccine distribution occur based on Federal and State mandates and allocation. LA County is working with a limited number of vaccines and adjusts based on prioritized distribution from the state level.
- The CDC has recommended who should be in Phases 1A and 1B but these groupings may be modified by the State. We are currently vaccinating those age 65 and above. Included in Phase 1B Tier 1 are also those who are in the following sectors: 1. Education and Childcare 2. Emergency Response 3. Food and Agriculture. Frontline essential workers were chosen because they cannot work from home and provide critically important services and are at high risk of being exposed to the COVID-19 virus. Older adults, and adults with medical conditions are given priority because they are more likely to become very sick if they get COVID-19. We will share more information when it is available from the CDC and the State.
9. For vaccine distribution, has there been any discussion at the local or State level to re consider prioritizing foster parents caring for foster children? Essential activities, such as court-mandated in-person family visits or State-mandated in-person caseworker visits, puts foster parents at a higher risk of contracting COVID than the general public.
- We are not aware of foster parents requests, but know that the State has received a high volume of requests from almost every constituent group requesting prioritization and inclusion. Since vaccine doses are extremely limited, and workers with the highest likelihood of contracting COVID continue to wait for inclusion uncertain which groups will be prioritized at the state level.
10. Does the County plan to mandate the vaccine for any County workers or County contracted workers?
- At this time County employees and contracted workers are not mandated to take the vaccine.
11. Would LA DPH be interested in partnering with community-based organizations to add mental health/substance/suicide prevention screenings as part of its mass vaccination efforts?
- LADPH welcomes the opportunity to partner with community-based organizations mental health/substance/suicide prevention screenings as departmental capacity and resources permit. SAPC and Violence Prevention Divisions may be able to best guide resources available.