(NewsNation) — The FDA has signed off on an updated COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer, which will soon be available nationwide.
The CDC has advised Americans to receive updated vaccinations ahead of the winter virus season.
Amish Adalja, infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, believes these vaccines are
“These new vaccines are matched to the variants, so this is likely to give you more protection than the prior vaccine, and certainly for those individuals are at higher risk, it’s going to provide protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death,” Adalja said on “Morning in America.”
While some may be concerned about the side effects, Adalja believes the newest iterations are safer than some of the previous vaccines.
“You can expect to have a sore arm muscle, aches and pains, maybe some fever, feeling fatigued for a day or two,” he said.
“That’s what the majority of people are going to face with this or any other COVID vaccine. The serious side effects, like myocarditis, not likely to happen very frequently with this vaccine, because that was really tied to the two-dose schedule.”
While COVID cases rise, Adalja believes that COVID is a far more manageable virus than during the pandemic.
“It’s not translating into hospitals in crisis. It’s not translating into massive numbers of deaths, which is because there’s immunity in the population against serious illness.”