The COVID-19 Vaccine

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Curtesy of Creative Commons

COVID-19 has been one of the worst diseases in recent times. It has infected more than 14 million people in the U.S. and countless others in other countries. But we still don’t have an approved vaccine in the U.S. When will there be an approved vaccine?

Many countries are working on this vaccine. According to raps.org, it says that many potential vaccines are still in testing. A lot of these are in phase 3 of testing. Many people don’t know when the vaccine will be available to the public. According to npr.org, it says, “the United Kingdom and Russia both made big announcements this week. The U.K. became the first nation to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Russia had already approved its own vaccine, though, with science that is less transparent and apparently less complete.” But there is still no approved vaccine in the United States, according to cdc.gov.

According to nytimes.com, “the drugmaker Moderna announced highly encouraging results on Monday, saying that complete data from a large study show its coronavirus vaccine to be 94.1 percent effective, a finding that confirms earlier estimates.” The nytimes.com also said, “Moderna is the second vaccine maker to apply for emergency use authorization; Pfizer submitted its application on Nov. 20. Pfizer has said it can produce up to 50 million doses this year, with about half going to the United States. Its vaccine also requires two doses per person.”

“The first shots of the two vaccines are likely to go to certain groups, including health care workers, essential workers like police officers, people in other critical industries, and employees and residents in nursing homes,” according to nytimes.com. No one knows when the vaccine will be available to the public. 

COVID-19 has been one of the worst diseases in recent times. It has infected more than 14 million people in the U.S. and countless others in other countries. But we still don’t have a vaccine. According to bloomberg.com, the FDA will meet to discuss if the vaccines are approved.