Vaccines: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How?

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(Courtesy of REUTERS)

After almost 10 long months of quarantine, everyone can agree that a vaccine would be great right now. People are clearly growing sick of wearing masks and staying secluded all the time. However, scientists have now found the breakthrough we are all looking for: a vaccine.

Pfizer, a vaccine company, has recently announced that their COVID-19 vaccine is ready to be distributed. With a 95% success rate, this vaccine has come farther than any other company’s attempts. 

Millions of doses have been made and approved, leaving shipping them out as the hardest step left. First of all, there are over 331 million people living in America at the moment. Second of all, they need to figure out the quickest transportation system in order to deposit the vaccine. Lastly, they need to decide who gets it first.

According to the CDC, healthcare workers are going to receive the vaccine first. This is because they are the people most commonly around people with COVID-19. Healthcare workers, such as doctors, nurses, and paramedics, have spent the last 10 months around diseased people, where they are likely to contract the virus.

After healthcare workers have been given the vaccine, the CDC expects the elderly and people with health conditions such as chronic lung cancer or emphysema are likely to receive it next. Elderly people tend to have weakened immune systems, meaning their body can’t fight the virus as effectively. People with health conditions, mainly involving the lungs, are likely to receive the vaccine because the virus affects mainly the respiratory system. 

The CDC predicts that people with no health conditions, who are not elderly, and who are not healthcare workers are expected to receive the vaccine. This means that kids, their parents, and friends, (as long as they meet the requirements) need to wait another 6 months until almost everyone, including themselves, have received their first dose of the vaccine. 

Even so, after everyone receives the vaccine, they must wait another few weeks to receive the second dose, and then they need to wait another few weeks for it to start working. Although this may seem like a long time, it means we are more than halfway done with quarantine. 

For now, Pfizer is working on producing more doses, and the government is working on getting them delivered across the country.