CLEARWATER, Fla. – Life may soon be one step closer to normal, now that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was given emergency use authorization by the FDA, and it’s been a long time coming.

What You Need To Know

  • Pfizer's COVID-19 has been given emergency use authorization

  • Fact sheet contains warning section that might concern people

  • Doctor explains warning, how a vaccine works

But a line in the warnings section of a fact sheet from Pfizer about administering the vaccine reads, “Immunocompromised persons, including individuals receiving immunosuppressant therapy, may have a diminished immune response…”

Dr. Deepa Verma of Synergistiq Integrative Health says this is not a concern, even though that is the population who will receive the vaccine first.

“When you’re doing these trials with vaccines, you typically have to do three phases. And typically when you pick your population, you’re always starting with healthy subjects,” Dr. Verma said.

She said the way a vaccine works is to expose your body to the virus so you can build an immunity.

But people with suppressed systems may not build as much of an immunity as a healthy person.

“If you’re immunosuppressed, your immune system is not acting the right way. It’s not robust, so it doesn’t create that big immune response,” Dr. Verma said.

She says this doesn’t exclude people who are immunocompromised, especially because there is no harm in getting the vaccine.

Many vaccines actually inject a bit of a live virus into your system so your body learns to recognize and fight it, but the Pfizer vaccine is made of MRNA, meaning it helps your body build an immunity without actually exposing you to the virus.

“What it’s doing is it stimulating your immune system to make a response and kind of trick the cells into becoming and looking like the virus and kind of engaging your whole immune system, everything from antigen cells to B cells to the T cells. So people who are auto immune or immunocompromised, they might not have as much of a robust of an immune response to that,” Dr. Verma said.

But, as she puts it, any response is better than no response at all.

“Even if you get 90 percent, 85 percent, 80 percent- that’s an extra percentage that these people are being protected by and they should get the vaccine,” Dr. Verma said.

She says this warning comes with every vaccine, and is certainly not specific to this one.​