The vaccine has had variety of stories behind it, but recently it has done nothing but improve. Three days ago, the FDA has determined that Pfizer-BioTech has met the standards that the EUA insured. So far, the FDA announced that 18,198 people have received the vaccine, and has been 95% effective for preventing the Covid-19 disease. However, many people believe the vaccine comes with long term negative effects. For example a former Ipswich high schooler, Andrew Zambernardi says, “The FDA should wait until the test margins are over 50,000 tests.” Andrew also claims that the vaccine will overall do more harm than good, because of the lack of testing prior to delivery.

Many people would agree with Andrew and claim that they would not take the vaccine because it is too risky. Even though most people don’t even know how the vaccine works, they still think it will cause different health problems. What the vaccine really is, is a RNA vaccine which uses tiny parts of the virus’s genetic code. This actually creates parts of the virus inside your body, that enter the cells and tells them to produce the coronavirus spike protein.

While this is all taking place inside the cells, the immune system recognizes that the virus is unfamiliar and starts to fight back. This creates your body to slowly get “immune” to the virus and overcome it. As you could imagine, this process is not quick and typically needs more than one dose to fully be effective, and to ensure that it is effective for a lasting amount of time.

Many people, when they hear news of a vaccine, think that things will just immediately go back to normal. This is not the case because it will take time for it to work and for there to be enough for everyone. It’s important that the vaccine can be distributed to the people who need it first. I asked Dan McCormick, resident of Ipswich, if he wants to be one of the first to get the vaccine, he replied, “No, I think it’s more important for people who need it, and I think I’m willing to wait for however long it takes for them to make enough.”

The doctors and scientists have been working tirelessly to get this vaccine out as quickly as possible, but with so much riding on its success it’s very important they get it right, before it goes out. Dan’s sister, who works at a hospital, has recently been told she is going to get the vaccine. The vaccine will enable her to stay on the front lines and help as many people as possible. As more and more people get the vaccine, it is beginning to look like there could be a finish line in sight. As quarantine has seemed like it’s been going on forever, many wonder if things will ever be the same.

As I finished up my interview with Dan, he also stated he hopes the vaccine gives us superpowers, which probably is just asking for too much. I think if the vaccine does what it’s supposed to do, that is going to make a lot of people happy.