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Prairie du Chien, WI –COVID-19 vaccines are readily available at Crossing Rivers Health in Prairie du Chien. Appointments can be made by calling 608-357-2500 or visiting crossingrivers.org/vaccine. Everyone in Wisconsin age 16 and older is eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at no cost. To date, Crossing Rivers Health has only received the Moderna vaccine, which is authorized for use in people who are 18 years of age and older. Those who are 16 or 17 years old may be added to our waiting list and will be contacted if we receive the Pfizer vaccine in the future.

Crossing Rivers Health encourages community members to continue to wear masks in public to slow the spread of disease, even after being vaccinated. Wearing a mask protects the health and wellness of those that may not have been vaccinated or are unable to be vaccinated.

From Centers for Disease Control www.cdc.gov

Understanding mRNA COVID-19 vaccines

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are mRNA vaccines. mRNA vaccines are a new type of vaccine to protect against infectious diseases. To trigger an immune response, many vaccines put a weakened or inactivated germ into our bodies. Not mRNA vaccines. Instead, they teach cells how to make a protein—or even just a piece of a protein—that triggers an immune response inside the body. That immune response, which produces antibodies, provides protection from getting infected if the real virus enters our bodies.

Facts about COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines:

• They cannot give someone COVID-19.
• mRNA vaccines do not use the live virus that causes COVID-19.

They do not affect or interact with our DNA in any way.

• mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA (genetic material) is kept.
• The cell breaks down and gets rid of the mRNA soon after it is finished using the instructions.

mRNA Vaccines Are New, But Not Unknown

Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades. Interest has grown in these vaccines because they can be developed in a laboratory using readily available materials. This means the process can be standardized and scaled up, making vaccine development faster than traditional methods of making vaccines. mRNA vaccines have been studied before for flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). As soon as the necessary information about the virus that causes COVID-19 was available, scientists began designing the mRNA instructions for cells to build the unique spike protein into an mRNA vaccine.

Key Things to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines

• COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective.
• There may have side effects after vaccination, but these are normal.
• It typically takes two weeks after being fully vaccinated for the body to build protection (immunity) against the virus that causes COVID-19.

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