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Its a new year, and COVID-19 vaccines offer hope for those wanting to protect themselves, especially people with underlying health conditions such as diabetes.

You may have questions about these new vaccines, including when you can get them and what questions you should ask your doctor about them. Experts we talked with say the vaccines are safe, effective, and important for people with diabetes.

The most important thing is that people with diabetes get vaccinated as soon as it becomes available to them, says Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD, chief science and medical officer for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Arlington, Virginia.

Below, we detail what you need to know about the COVID-19 vaccines.

RELATED: 10 Diabetes Care Tips to Follow During the COVID-19 Pandemic

It depends on where you live. At a federal level, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) makes recommendations about who should receive priority for vaccination. It is then up to each state to use those recommendations to plan for and distribute vaccines to counties and residents.

Even so, guidelines are changing. In mid-January, U.S Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said Americans 65 years and older and those who are younger but have underlying health conditions should receive priority, as AARP reports.

If your state is following the CDCs recommendations, healthcare workers and nursing home residents are receiving first priority for the vaccine. Next, the CDC recommends vaccinating frontline workers such as firefighters, teachers, and grocery store workers, along with people over 75.

Then, the CDC recommends vaccinating people with type 2 diabetes and other underlying medical conditions due to their increased risk of severe COVID-19-associated illness.

People with type 1 diabetes do not currently have the same priority vaccination with the CDC. But groups including theJuvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and the ADA are advocating for this priority at a federal and state level.

Justin Gregory, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt Childrens Hospital in Nashville, who has type 1 diabetes, says that people with type 1 diabetes should have the same priority for vaccination as people with type 2 diabetes because both groups have a similarly increased risk for dangerous and deadly COVID-19 illness.

In the end, states make their own decisions about vaccination priority, so check your state and local health departments website to find out when you are eligible. The ADA has also assembled links to individual states vaccination plans as part of its COVID-19 Vaccination Guide.

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Potentially. The CDC notes notes that the risk for hospitalization increases with the more high-risk medical conditions a person has its 2.5 times for a person with one condition and 5 times for people with three or more conditions. Nevertheless, having comorbidities, such as heart and kidney disease, does not mean you will be allowed to get vaccinated before someone with only diabetes or another single health condition. Again, it comes down to where you live.

In Massachusetts, for example, people with two or more underlying conditions are prioritized to get a COVID-19 vaccine before those with only one condition. Other states do not designate priority by the number of underlying medical conditions.

Where you can get a vaccine also varies depending on where you live. You may be able to sign up for notification about availability of the vaccine with your county or healthcare provider. Pharmacies, hospitals, doctors offices, and health departments will likely all play a role in administering the vaccine, according to a November report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Your doctor can also guide you on where to seek a vaccine in your hometown.

Its quite clear that people with diabetes do much worse than people without diabetes in terms of their outcomes with COVID, says Dr. Gabbay. Early in the pandemic, astudy from the CDC found that roughly half of people who died from COVID-19 under age 65 had diabetes.

The protective effects of vaccines are critical for people with diabetes who are at increased risk for severe and deadly infection from COVID-19,says Dr. Gregory. His December 2020 study in Diabetes Care found that people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes are 3 times more likely to be hospitalized or experience severe COVID-19 illness compared with people without diabetes.

Two studies from the United Kingdom showed similar risk. An October 2020 study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology found that people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes were 2 to 3 times more likely to die from COVID-19 in the hospital than people without diabetes. And a December 2020 study in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology found that people with type 1 or type 2 were more likely to die or to be treated in the intensive care unit for COVID-19.

Vaccinations for Black, Latino, and Native Americans are critical because these communities are disproportionately affected by both diabetes and COVID-19. African Americans and Latino Americans are over 50 percent more likely to have diabetes than white Americans, according to the ADA. Black, Latino, and Native Americans experienced a death rate from COVID-19 double or more than white Americans in 2020, according to the CDC.

RELATED: Black Americans Have Been Hit Hardest by COVID-19 Heres Why

Two COVID-19 vaccines are currently available in the United States and people with diabetes were included in both the vaccine trials. Both require two doses spaced either 21 days (Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine) or 28 days (Moderna vaccine) apart. With their two doses completed, these vaccines are over 90 percent effective and received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2020.

We wanted to make sure we recruited a number of individuals who had the types of underlying medical conditions that can make COVID more severe, says C. Buddy Creech, MD, MPH, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program in Nashville and part of the phase 3 trials of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

That included people with diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, says Dr. Creech. People with type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes were included in the Moderna clinical trial, he adds. The FDA filing from Pfizer-BioNTech says the trial included people with diabetes but does not specify among types.

The vaccines were well-tolerated, highly efficacious, and elicited an immune response in people with underlying conditions, such as diabetes, says Creech.

People with diabetes are going to be prioritized [for COVID-19 vaccination] because we know theyre at increased risk for disease. And they should feel confident that someone a whole lot like them was enrolled in the clinical trial so that we can say with a greater degree of certainty that they can effectively get this vaccine, says Creech.

Gabbay says that the data do not suggest the COVID-19 vaccines pose particular risk for people with diabetes. He also says there is no reason to think there would be interactions with insulin or other medications that people with diabetes might take.

RELATED: America Wants to Know: Where Are Our COVID-19 Vaccines?

In general, the most common side effects of both vaccines are pain, swelling, and redness at the injection site. Other common side effects are chills, tiredness, and headaches. Most of these side effects were mild, but some people had more severe reactions that interfered with daily activities.

Gabbay says side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines are similar to those of flu vaccines. For someone living with diabetes, keeping a sick-day kit with extra medications and supplies is beneficial in case you do not feel well.

Gabbay says the first question patients should ask their providers about the COVID-19 vaccine is, When can I get it?

Be proactive in calling your provider to ask for the vaccine, says Gabbay. Check the websites of your state and local health departments to find out about local vaccine distribution. Being patient, persistent, and informed is the best approach, says Gabbay.

Read this article:
COVID-19 Vaccines for People With Diabetes: 8 Must-Know Facts - Everyday Health

This entry was posted on January 22, 2021 at 9:54 am and is filed under Diabetes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |