From an interview with
Dr. Amid Hamidi
McLeod Medical Director, Emergency Department

The internet and multiple sources have spread fake information about COVID-19. McLeod Medical Director of Emergency Department Dr. Amid Hamidi sets the record straight.

Here’s a summary of Dr. Hamidi’s comments:

MYTH: I’ve already had COVID, and I have recovered so I don’t need to get a COVID vaccine.
HAMIDI: COVID confers some immunity. So, you’re probably immune to some extent, but recommendations are for you to go ahead and get the vaccination 90 days after you’ve finished with COVID. There are plenty of people that I’ve seen, who get COVID a second time, test positive, a certain amount of time passed, and they caught COVID again. Consider yourself in the pool to get COVID again unless you’re vaccinated and have had your booster. I would strongly recommend it.

MYTH: If I’ve had the antibody infusion, I don’t need the vaccine.
HAMIDI: The antibody infusion is administered while you have COVID. You’ve had the antibody infusion in order to overcome COVID. However, once 90 days passes, I would still take the COVID shot. Really, I recommend all three COVID shots. I would take the first one, give it the expected amount of time, 21 days or 28 days, take the second one, and even take the third one.

MYTH: There are severe side effects of the COVID vaccine.
DR. HAMIDI: With the vaccine, you often experience some muscle pain and, maybe, a little bit of feeling like you have a flu-like syndrome for 24 hours. Then, it passes. For most people, especially with their first vaccine, that’s really it. Now as your body has developed some immunity with your second or third shot, you might experience a few more symptoms. That just means that your body recognized that this foreign thing that was introduced to it. I tell my patients to pre-medicate with some Tylenol to prevent having those symptoms of muscle pain and just tiredness.

MYTH: The COVID vaccine doesn’t work because you can still get COVID after vaccination.
DR. HAMIDI: You can get COVID after you’ve had it once or you can get COVID after being vaccinated, but chances of you getting severe disease is much smaller. I rarely see someone who’s vaccinated with moderate to severe disease. So, you’re really getting your vaccination to prevent COVID from becoming a severe disease. You might get some sniffles. You might lose taste and smell a little bit, but at least you don’t get seriously ill.

MYTH: Vaccines do not protect against the COVID-19 variants like the Delta or Omicron variants.
DR. HAMIDI: Plenty of studies show that you still reduce the incidence of COVID with vaccination no matter what variant. The variants might still have spikes, but vaccines generally protect you against most of the variants arise.

MYTH: COVID vaccines can cause infertility or miscarriage.
DR. HAMIDI: There’s no evidence to really support that.

MYTH: COVID-19 vaccines were manufactured using fetal tissue.
DR.HAMIDI: That’s NOT true. They were produced in test tubes with no human tissue involved. They were then tested in humans. Once the efficacy and safety was proven, then it was open to the wide market. Since then, there’s been clinical trials and studies on them to make sure they keep being safe.

For more information on COVID-19, click here.