“In general, immunocompromised patients – because this is only a piece of a virus, it’s not live, it’s something that gets degraded – even immunocompromised individuals, for the most part, can get this vaccine. Talk to your physician to make sure it’s ok; but, again, it’s a pretty safe vaccine.

“Unfortunately, for people who are under the age of 12, it’s not approved yet; so, the only way we can really – two ways – the only way we can protect ourselves is herd immunity. And that is when most everyone is vaccinated so that small subset of people doesn’t get the virus because it’s not being transmitted freely in the community. But, if there’s a lot of transmission — like there is, unfortunately, now — those people who cannot get the vaccine are going to end up being infected. So, that leads to people we would like to protect we can’t protect because we don’t have that herd immunity, so to speak. The only other way to mitigate would be to wear a mask. So, until everyone is vaccinated to create that herd immunity, really wearing a mask is the only other way – so, that’s why they’re truly pushing for more people to get the vaccine.”

Heather Lusby, D.O.