top of page

COVID-19 Vaccine News

By KATHLEEN BENNETT

The world is on its way back to normalcy with the approved COVID-19 vaccines. Three companies have worked hard to get high effective rates for these vaccines. The companies that have their vaccine approved are Pfizer, Moderna and BioNTech. 

 

The government and the vaccine companies have and are continuing to distribute the vaccines to the states in the United States of America. All essential workers, which includes all hospital staff, are the first people to get vaccinated without being part of a trial.

 

Lee Roop, author of “"'Excited' Huntsville Hospital staff get COVID vaccine, hope for 'new chapter,’” reports that all staff at Huntsville Hospital in Alabama are ecstatic to get vaccinated: “A line of staff stretched down the hall waiting their turn including caregivers, security, and support staff in departments like Housekeeping. All face the risks of working at the hospital during the pandemic, Chief Operating Officer Jeff Samz said.”

 

Vaccinations are a controversial issue as it is, but with the quickly produced COVID-19 an even larger controversy exists considering the speed at which it was produced. For some,  skepticism about it exists, while others think of it as a glimmer of hope. 

 

Considering that some people are skeptical about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, many hospitals and businesses are providing incentives to those who are skeptical.

 

For example, according to Arielle Mitropoulos of ABC News, “Houston Methodist, a large flagship hospital in Texas that employs over 26,000 people, has begun to offer its employees a $500 ‘hope bonus’ if they agree to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. About 60% of the hospital's employees have been vaccinated.”

 

Even though some may think that giving incentives, such as cash is crazy to do just to get vaccinated, it is realistic and worth a try, especially for skeptical healthcare workers. 

 

Getting vaccinated is like wearing a mask; if everyone wears a mask, they are preventing themselves from spreading it, and getting vaccinated is the same way. The incentives are suggesting that people need to stop thinking just about themselves and start thinking about the world around them.

 

Governors, including Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, have begun to branch out to offer the vaccines to groups of people other than medical personnel in order to prevent any vaccine from expiring. These groups include people aged 75 and older, as well as educational staff and other essential workers.

​

More specifically, Jessica Dickler of CNBC reports, “In New York state, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced that teachers, police, firefighters, public transit workers and other first responders can now get vaccinated, along with people age 75 or older, making more than 3 million people in the state eligible. Still, under current federal guidelines, New York state is only allocated 300,000 vaccine doses a week.”

​

Though more people are allowed to get vaccinated, states including New York are getting less vaccines as each shipment comes in. The problem with this is that the more people are allowed to get vaccinated, the less likely it is for it to occur; keeping this in mind, the number of vaccines being delivered to each state should increase and this is a federal government issue that needs to be resolved both quickly and efficiently.

​

Within the week of January 17, 2021, Governor Cuomo of New York has decided to take matters into his own hands and speak directly to the vaccine manufacturers, specifically Pfizer to make a deal to buy directly from them, so New York will receive the correct number of vaccines. 

​

Reed Alexander from Business Insider informs, “‘The distribution of any doses obtained directly from Pfizer will follow the rigorous guidance the State has established, while enabling us to fill the dosage gap created this week by the outgoing federal administration,’ Cuomo added. ‘All of this will further our goal to vaccinate 70 to 90 percent of New Yorkers as soon as possible and reach herd immunity.’”

​

Unfortunately, Pfizer’s response to Cuomo’s outreach to buy vaccines directly from them was that Pfizer “…would need approval from the Department of Health and Human Services to sell its vaccine directly to states,” Alexander adds.

​

Though states can’t buy vaccines directly from the manufacturers yet, as a population, people can only hope that the Department of Health and Human Services will allow Pfizer, as well as other manufacturers, to sell their vaccines to the states in the near future.

​

Either way, the world is beginning to look a little brighter each day because people can count on the facts that each day at least one person is getting vaccinated, which means as a population, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, incher closer to normal times.


 

Works Cited

Alexander, Reed. "Cuomo asks Pfizer to sell its COVID-19 vaccine directly to New York as the head of WHO warns of mounting inequities in vaccine distribution." Business Insider, 18 Jan. 2021, www.businessinsider.com/new-york-gov-cuomo-asks-pfizer-sell-vaccine-to-ny-2021-1. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021.

Dickler, Jessica. "Teachers are next in line for the Covid vaccine, paving the way for schools to reopen." CNBC, 19 Jan. 2021. CNBC, www.cnbc.com/2021/01/19/teachers-are-eligible-for-the-covid-vaccine-as-schools-try-to-reopen.html. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021.

Goldstein, Joseph. "Cuomo Widens Eligibility After Vaccine Goes Unused or Is Even Thrown Out." The New York Times [New York City], 8 Jan. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/nyregion/nyc-coronavirus-vaccine-delays.html. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021.

Mitropoulos, Arielle. "Hospitals and businesses are offering incentives to those hesitant about getting COVID-19 vaccines." ABC News, 14 Jan. 2021, abcnews.go.com/Business/hospitals-businesses-offering-incentives-hesitant-covid-19-vaccines/story?id=75209689. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021.

Roop, Lee. "'Excited' Huntsville Hospital staff get COVID vaccine, hope for 'new chapter.'" AL.com [Huntsville], 16 Dec. 2020, www.al.com/coronavirus/2020/12/excited-huntsville-hospital-staff-get-covid-vaccine-hope-for-new-chapter.html. Accessed 19 Jan. 2021.

bottom of page