COVID-19 vaccine to be available soon

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT)– President Donald Trump and the medical company Pfizer, announced a new COVID-19 vaccine Monday.

The company conducted trials for the immunization, and says it’s about 90 percent effective in preventing the virus.

Medical Director of Infection Prevention at Navicent Health, Jeffrey Stephens, says the results look promising. However, he says we won’t see the effects of the vaccine as quickly as expected.

“We’ll still have to do masking and social distancing for right now,” said Stephens. “Over the long term, obviously having this vaccine plus the others in the pipeline will hopefully bring us back to some normalcy.”

The injection will come in two doses. After taking the first, scientists say you will need to wait 21 days before taking the second. Dr. Stephens says the immunization will help the body’s response to the virus.

“It’s a different kind of vaccine because it’s made of mRNA. This means that when you get it into your body it gets into the cells and makes one of the proteins of the virus but it’s not really even part of the virus. It’s creating one of your body’s spike proteins so that your body will have a response to that and the virus going forward.”

Pfizer expects to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine this year. That’s enough for about 15 percent of the US population.

North Central Health District Representative, Michael Hokanson, says the vaccine will take time before it becomes widely available. For now, he encourages people to continue following CDC guidelines.

“The vaccine isn’t out yet. It might not become widely available immediately. So we still all need to follow those rules we keep talking about since March, Wearing your mask, washing your hands, staying socially distanced from others, and not going out if you’re sick.”