5 Things to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines

Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna are poised to receive emergency use authorization for their COVID-19 vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration.

Both companies said that their vaccines were over 90% effective in clinical trials and had side effects that only lasted a day or two.

But since they are novel vaccines that were developed at warp speed, there has been a lot a speculation and misinformation about how they work and if the testing process was thorough.

Here is what we know:

1. The vaccines use unique genetic technology. According to ABC News, both vaccines would be the first that use messenger RNA, or mRNA, to be authorized by the FDA. Instead of using weak or dead versions of a virus, the new candidates use a genetic code from the virus that teaches our immune cells to recognize the enemy. That is one of the reasons scientists were able to create the vaccines so quickly. While it’s a new type of vaccine, experts say we already have mRNA in our bodies.
2. They were tested in the same manner as traditional vaccines. Dr. Anna Durbin, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News that “the studies that are being conducted are very robust compared with the standard vaccine studies or trials that would be conducted.”
3. We do not know how long immunity will last. According to CBS News, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the vaccines may be like our annual flu shot, meaning “we likely would have to get boosted.” Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a leading vaccine expert, told ABC News that we don’t know how long the vaccines will protect us because of the speed at which they were tested, adding that is the reason the FDA is not granting a full license, only an EUA.
4. States and local authorities are responsible for distribution. Fauci said he is confident that there are enough personnel and equipment to distribute the vaccines once they are approved. “Each individual city, state, public health authority has their own plan about how they are going to distribute it,” he said.
5. Vaccines are our best chance to curb the pandemic. Historically, vaccines have proven to be safe and effective and the current COVID-19 vaccines appear to be reliable according to data. While studies normally take two or three years to complete, Offit says after weighting the risks and benefits, there isn’t an option. “Do you want to do a two- or three-year trial when 260,000 people died this year?” he asked, according to ABC. Durbin added: “The bottom line is, we can’t get out of this pandemic without a vaccine.”