Covid Vaccine On The Horizon

Pfizer Incorporated and BioNTech just announced to the public their creation of a 95% effective Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. The vaccine, if applicable, will protect all people from COVID-19 as it works to instruct the body to successfully battle the disease. 

According to BBC News, this first COVID-19 vaccine is “the first RNA vaccine to be approved for use in humans.” A normal vaccine, such as the Influenza vaccine, puts a small weakened amount of the disease in our body to normalize the cells in our body and help our body learn how to fight the disease.  An RNA vaccine according to the CDC is used “to teach our cells how to make a protein- or even just a piece of a protein- that triggers an immune response from inside our bodies.”

This new type of vaccine has been tested for numerous years, but this is potentially the first time that it will ever be authorized for use in the United States. 

Although the United Kingdom has already been licensed to distribute this version of the vaccine, the United States was delayed. This delayed response from the United States on the vaccine was a result of slow safety certification from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On December 11, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the first emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine for the prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). “The FDA’s authorization for emergency use of the first COVID-19 vaccine is a significant milestone in battling this devastating pandemic that has affected so many families in the United States and around the world,” said FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D. The United States plans to go ahead with administering the vaccine to citizens with priority vaccination groups when distribution begins. The recommendations for the highest-priority groups, known as Phase 1a, were also approved and adopted by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, who also informs Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. 

The state of the world with COVID-19 is ever changing, but with this new vaccine on the horizon, a sense of hope for a healthier future for all has begun to develop as well. 

Article by Miyah Falk of Winston Churchill High School

Photo Courtesy of Daniel Schludi via Unsplash