Is there a relationship between allergies and the COVID and flu vaccines? Are they having a negative impact on Black Americans? Dr. LeNoir welcomes a panel of experts to discuss.
Dr.Thomas Scott: What are some of the barriers that are keeping people from obtaining adequate treatment and from getting vaccinations?
Dr. Effiong: COVID is real. The numbers are real. We see that African Americans are getting whipped disproportionately with this disease, and we know why that’s the case. We know historically we’ve been not just underrepresented, underappreciated, uncared for, but also we’ve also been mistreated in such a way that has led to somewhat distrust in the African-American community. It’s very understandable that we distrust the health system, but that distrust is, in and of itself, serving us wrongly when it comes to a pandemic like this. The real virus that is affecting us is disproportionate because of historical inequities that have been there.
Dr.Thomas Scott: What are things that people can do to empower themselves in terms of preparing for not only this pandemic, but the next?
Dr. Aisha Harris: Healthy eating can help strengthen immunity and decrease our risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and other medical problems. Boosting and strengthening our immune system helps provide protection against many illnesses, as well as infections. And it also influences our recovery process when we do get sick with different illnesses or infections.Having a balanced diet is one way to improve our immune system. And when I say balanced diet, I’m talking about lean proteins, whole fruits, vegetables, and plenty of water for our system. But if you aren’t able to have a balanced diet, then vitamins and supplements are able to bridge that gap until we are able to improve our diet overall, as well as limiting foods with extra sugar or saturated fats, and sodium can also help improve our diet overall. Chronic diseases overall can then negatively impact someone’s immune system if they aren’t taking care of those chronic diseases, either preventing them or managing them in a general way. And that makes you more vulnerable to complications when you get illnesses or infections like the coronavirus. So having good nutrition is very important to build your immune system as well as help you help protect yourself overall from everything.
Dr. Michael LeNoir: Everybody talks about the fact that people with allergies are at risk for getting the COVID shot. What are the statistics around that?
Dr. Nancy Joseph: Unless you have a contraindication for the vaccine and currently because of the peg in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, that is the contraindication of anaphylactic and anaphylaxis to that. But aside from that, in fact, getting protected, vaccinated is actually protective for someone with allergic diseases. Now if you have an allergic disease like asthma, we talked about how a viral infection, whether COVID 19 or influenza can already be a trigger. So that increases your risk of having that lung inflammation, which then may increase your risk of complications with that. And so getting a vaccination is important.
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