The Covid-19 Vaccine

The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is no secret. Several companies’ among different countries, have been in the race to find a vaccine since the outbreak started to spread worldwide earlier this year. Many have been making misleading promises on when we might have access to such vaccine.

What many don’t know, is when it comes to vaccines, it takes years, many years to perfect and really know the side effects of a new vaccine. Vaccine manufactures for the Covid-19 vaccine have been forced to expedite this process, and while they’re not allowed to cut corners they’re certainly cutting valuable time.

Dr. Anthony Fauci recently stated “I feel cautiously optimistic that we will have a vaccine by the end of this calendar year, as we get into early 2021,”. Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is helping lead the medical battle against the virus. It’s also stated that vaccine manufactures, public health experts, and the federal government are confident one or more vaccines will be readily available by the end of the year, although the US and rest of the world will still be a far from ending the pandemic.

Even though a vaccine is approved, does not mean it will be immediately accessible to all 300 million Americans. Manufacturing limitations results in dosage limitations. It’s said not until we get into 2021 will all Americans eventually be able to be vaccinated.

Vaccine manufacturer Pfizer gave an update on their trials earlier this week, and data looks promising so far. They are also expanding their trial from 30,000 people to 44,000 people adding in more diversity and people with pre-existing conditions to gain further data on possible outcomes. The trial was expanded because the vaccine in previous trials appeared to be “extremely safe” the company CEO stated. 

A vaccine in the near future is looking more and more promising as we’re heading out of 2020.

references:

CNN. (2020, September 15). Here’s why a vaccine will not stop the Covid-19 pandemic right away. 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/health/vaccine-not-end-coronavirus-pandemic/index.html

USA TODAY. (2020, SEPTEMBER 15). PFIZER REPORTS ‘POTENTIAL’ OF COVID-19 CANDIDATE VACCINE AFTER EXPANDING TRIAL TO 44,000 PEOPLE

. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/09/15/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-positive-update/5808960002/