More than 5,000 Idahoans have received a COVID-19 vaccine. Now that it’s here, Idaho’s health officials are clearing up confusion and misinformation.
When a caller asked Governor Brad Little about misinformation during his weekly AARP town hall, Little said transparency and publishing accurate data is a priority.
“There's no question there's been some information that's been maybe less than credible, that's been spread around,” he said.
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen was part of the call and reiterated getting immunized is safe.
“As people get vaccines, there will be some mild side effects of that,” Jeppesen said. Those side effects may include a sore arm, fatigue, headache or in rare cases a fever, but they’re no cause for alarm.
“They go away within a day or two,” he continued. “I want to be clear that these are not live vaccines or even dead vaccines. These are vaccines that are ... not using the pathogen itself.”
Little and Jeppesen expect the vaccine will be effective for multiple years. They couldn’t say when it might be available to the general public, but promised that information will be avilable on the state's coronavirus websitelater on.
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