Morton East students and staff say “yes” to COVID-19 vaccine. According to a random survey, 67.7% of the people would take the vaccine.

As the COVID-19 vaccine is being available in many different areas, people are debating on whether they will take the vaccine or refuse to take it. People have different concerns to what the short term and long-term effects are. According to the CDC some of the short-term effects are pain, swelling, fever, chills, tiredness, and headaches. Long term effects are still not fully known. There are two different shots you can take, there is the vaccine called Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech. Both vaccines need to be used twice to be fully protected (when you take either one). For the second dosage for the Moderna you will need to “wait 1 month or 28 days after the first shot” in order to take the second shot. “For the Pfizer-BioNTech you would need to wait 3 weeks or 21 days”. The vaccines are recommended by the CDC for people that are above the age of 16.

“No I don’t fear the side effects, the method used for vaccine development has shown to be safe,” Science teacher Ms. Janin Huerta said.

According to the NRG. Org website 14.1% of Illinois has been vaccinated once. And 4.7% have been vaccinated with both doses.

“I actually am more frightened of the coronavirus than I am of the vaccine or its side effects. I suppose it’s true that we don’t really know long term effects because of the rush on approval and trials. But, I had my second dose of Covid-19 vaccine last week. While I have known people who felt really sick after getting the vaccine, I really didn’t have much more than an achy arm,” Journalism teacher Mr. Kent Frankfother said.

Another thing according to the NRG.org website 13.4% of the whole U.S has been vaccinated with at least one dose of the vaccine. And 6% of the U.S population has been vaccinated with both doses.

“I feel okay about it. I received my first dose and I felt good after, just a little soreness in my arm and tiredness. I am worried about the second dose and the side effects as I have heard they are worse. Overall, I am very grateful to the district for the opportunity to get vaccinated as I rather have a little arm soreness and high temperature than have COVID-19,” Journalism student teacher Ms. Noelle Lowther said.

There has been a new vaccine that has yet to be approved for the people, and that vaccine is called “Johnson and Johnson.” It has been recently approved by the FDA to be safe and effective. According to the Washington Post, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is only required in one dosage instead of two like the other vaccines.