HELENA — If you are looking for a local source to answer your questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, St. Peter's Health published an article answering the most common inquiries.
It is part of their effort to combat the spread of misleading information around the vaccine.
“There's a lot of misinformation floating around about things such as questions about the safety of the vaccine all the way down to there being microchips in the vaccine,” says Tom Richardson, Pharmacy Clinical Manager at St. Peter’s Health. “Some key highlights are that this vaccine is absolutely safe and effective."
The hospital says they receive several dozen questions from the public every day.
Questions range from whether pregnant women should be vaccinated to continued prevention measures after receiving the vaccine.
“One of the big questions that we receive is 'well, I'm vaccinated, why do I still have to wear a mask?' And one of the things that we don't know is whether vaccination equates to sterilization,” explains Richardson. “So, you could still be a carrier of COVID-19 and give it to others, especially those yet to be vaccinated."
The end goal is to have 80% of the population vaccinated to create herd immunity.
“As an analogy, I think of it as in football. So, somebody has the football and if your team members gather around you while everybody is trying to tackle you, you have protection because everybody who is blocking for you are like those who have been vaccinated and they are keeping the virus out, which is the opposing team," explains Richardson.
St. Peter’s Health says they are part of a collaborative with other medical groups in the area that meet weekly discussing ways to get reliable information out to the community.
To view the article by St. Peter’s Health, click here.
To send an email to St. Pete with a question about COVID-19, click here.
The State of Montana also has a COVID-19 hotline: 1-888-333-0461
The state's email for questions is covid19info@mt.gov.
You can also access the state's vaccination FAQ. Click here to access the FAQ web page.
