NORTH CAROLINA, USA — The Food and Drug Administration is expected to follow suit after a United States advisory panel OK'd widespread use of the Pfizer vaccine.
To Wake Forest Baptist Health Chief of Infectious Disease Dr. John Sanders, it represents what could be the beginning of the end.
"I think we should be very excited about the great data that has come out already from Pfizer and Moderna," said Sanders.
Frontline healthcare workers and those most at risk to get the virus are some of the first in line to get the vaccine.
Wake Forest Baptist Health and Cone Health are expecting to get shipments of the vaccine, pending approval by the FDA, next week.
Sanders said depending on how many other vaccine trials are approved and how soon, that could expedite the time it will take to get the general public vaccinated.
"I think we can say with some confidence, by March, that most of us who need the vaccine quickly will have had access to the vaccine, and by end of spring, going into summer, anybody who wants the vaccine should be able to access it," he said.
Sanders said more research will have to be done to figure out exactly what the vaccine does.
"Some of those questions have to be answered over time. How much does it protect against infection? How much does it protect against symptoms? How much does it protect against the spread of infection? Those are all things that are left for us to sort out over the coming year," said Sanders.
Sanders said one person getting the vaccine, wearing a mask or social distancing won't help the situation. There needs to be widespread use of the vaccine to stop the spread of COVID-19.
"We could prevent all traffic deaths by never ever driving but we don’t do that. Instead, we say let’s reduce the risks of having a fatal car accident as best we can. Set speed limits, wear masks, wear a seatbelt, social distance, put in airbags, use a vaccine. We do everything we can to reduce the bad outcome, reduce the transmission, but nothing is going to combine to take it to zero," he said.
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