There’s been very promising news coming out on the coronavirus front, which has washed a wave of cautious optimism over me, and everyone else here at Portland Monthly. The CDC has been ever so slowly adjusting its COVID restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals. On Thursday health officials said that Americans who are fully vaccinated can stop wearing masks or maintaining social distance in most indoor and outdoor settings, regardless of their size.

The second bit of promising news is that 12 to 15 years olds are now eligible to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

It’s more than welcome news for anxious parents, and it brings us all one step closer to normal. And with a whole new group of people eligible to receive a first and second dose of the coronavirus vaccine, questions about their potential side effects are resurfacing. And so I thought it might be good to revisit an episode we published a couple of weeks ago on that very subject.

In this episode of Footnotes, published on April 30, I talked with Dawn Nolt, a professor of pediatrics, with a special focus on infectious diseases, at Oregon Health & Science University, about the potential side effects from first and second doses of the coronavirus vaccine. We talked about why people may or may not experience these side effects, and why, if you do experience them, it’s actually a good thing.  

Guest 

• Dawn Nolt, professor of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University