Just weeks before a COVID-19 vaccine is expected to be made available to U.S. medical workers and first responders, a firefighters' union internal survey taken by members of the country's largest fire department shows that more than 50% say they would not take it, mirroring what appears to be a nationwide hesitancy to get the shot.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association (UFA) survey of 2,000 members of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) showed that 55% of participants said they would not bother to get inoculated.
Andrew Ansbro, president of the UFA, said the results of the survey are concerning in light of 200 members of the fire department currently being out sick with coronavirus.
"As a union, we are encouraging our members to get the vaccine, but we are defending that right to make that choice, Ansbro said at a news conference Sunday.
An injured worker is brought to a waiting FDNY ambulance, Nov. 14, 2020.
The FDNY has a total of nearly 11,000 uniformed employees, and Anbro said the survey results are likely indicative of the overall attitude among members of the department.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, emphasized the importance of convincing the majority of the U.S. population to get the vaccination during a COVID-19 press briefing with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday.
When you have 75% to 80% of the people vaccinated, you have an umbrella of protection over the community, that the level of community spread will be really, really very low. The virus will not have any place to go," Fauci, who has been tapped to be President-elect Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, said. If 50% of the people get vaccinated, then we dont have that umbrella of immunity over us."
Ansbro said the reluctance among FDNY members to get the vaccine is generally fueled by a lack of information.
"The reasons for that are probably the same reasons everyone else doesn't want it: It is a new vaccine, they don't have enough information, Ansbro said.
Two vaccines are within weeks of being released -- one by Pfizer and the other by Moderna. The pharmaceutical giants have requested emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to begin distributing the vaccines.
The FDA is set to review Pfizer's request on Thursday and Moderna's on Dec. 17. Both companies have announced vaccine efficacy rates of more than 90%.
The federal government's Operation Warp Speed has said there will be "shots in arms" within 24 hours of authorization.
Ansbro said the union plans to launch a program to educate fire department members on the vaccine in hopes of making them less reluctant to take it.
Members of FDNY exit a building while on a call in New York City, Nov. 14, 2020.
"That is going to be the hurdle the department and the union is going to have to overcome," Ansbro said.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro and FDNY Chief of Department John Sudnik issued an internal order last month that said the vaccination will not be mandatory to firefighters and emergency medical service workers, though it recommended that employees consider "the overall benefits" of getting vaccinated.
The results of the FDNY survey are similar to recent nationwide polls. A Gallup Panel survey, which was conducted in late October before Pfizer and Moderna released results about the likely effectiveness of their vaccines, found that 58% of Americans would be willing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a decrease from July, when 66% said they would.
Medical experts say the results of the surveys are similar to how people feel about getting the flu vaccine, with about 50% of the population not bothering to get the influenza shot.
Gen. Gus Perna, who is leading Operation Warp Speed, said in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview last month that the one thing that keeps him up at night is the possibility that "we get vaccines to the American people, and they don't take them."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced a new strategy to "educate and promote vaccination," a CDC spokesperson told ABC News. In the vein of "I Voted" stickers, the agency plans to give health providers a template for buttons and stickers people can wear to declare they have been "vaccinated for COVID-19."
The resistance to taking the vaccine comes as a second wave of the virus has again pushed hospitals across the country to the brink of capacity.
For the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the United States is reporting an average of nearly 2,200 deaths from the disease per day, according to an ABC News analysis of data collected and published by the COVID Tracking Project.
The national seven-day average of COVID-19 deaths per day is currently 2,171. That figure has increased by 139% in the past month.
Last week, there were nearly 15,000 fatalities from the disease recorded nationwide, including five days where the daily death toll surpassed the 2,000 mark. That's roughly equivalent to over 80 COVID-19 deaths reported each hour.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has reported over 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day for more than a month straight, including three consecutive days where the daily count topped 200,000.
In an interview Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams urged Americans to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously and encouraged them to take the vaccine when it becomes available.
"It's a way that we can ultimately end this pandemic, but it doesn't matter if people won't get the vaccination," Adams said.
ABC News' Celia Darrough, Desiree Adib and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) Gov. Larry Hogan is expected to give Marylanders an overview of the states COVID-19 vaccination plan Tuesday afternoon as the state readies a campaign to get people to trust the vaccine.
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The governors communications director Mike Ricci said in a tweet Monday that Hogan will give Marylanders a look into what they can expect on receiving first doses of the coronavirus vaccine and the states plan.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES:
On Monday, the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center held a forum with some of Marylands top health officials stressing the need for people to get vaccinated once COVID-19 vaccines are available.
Vaccines do not work to protect people; vaccinations do, said Dr. Jinlene Chan of the Maryland Department of Health.
Maryland will soon begin a high-profile campaign to convince the public to trust the vaccines.
Itll be important to really target and focus our messaging to address and dismantle what we know those concerns are. We have to address and acknowledge the root cause, and theyre rational. Theyre rational concerns and rational fears, said Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa.
The vaccines cant come soon enough: Maryland reported more than two thousand new infections Monday, but the positivity rate and hospitalizations went down slightly.
Dr. Stuart Bell, a MedStar Health vice president, told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren he is still worried about hospitals filling up.
It is very clear we are in a significant second surge and have been for at least three or four weeks, Dr. Bell said. Its sort of a slow, steady crescendo increase.
It comes as they are also trying to care for patients without COVID-19.
The next two or three weeks will really tell the tale, he said If we do a really good job, we can stay just a little bit ahead of where the COVID numbers are as long as we dont have a major surge. If we have a major surge, I think all bets are off.
Dr. Bell acknowledged there are different strains of COVID-19.
The Baltimore Ravens said four unique strains were found in their facility during a recent outbreak and one was highly contagious.
To date, 4,705 people have died in Maryland. Among the recent COVID-related deaths: Rob Cadrette, a 22-year veteran of the Charles County Sheriffs Office and Antwion Busta Ball, a 43-year-old teacher from Baltimore City. Balls family has now raised more than $6,000 from a GoFundMe for his funeral expenses.
During the early days of the pandemic, Maryland struggled to buy ventilators and personal protective equipment.
Back then, Governor Larry Hogan blasted Blue Flame Medical, a company run by Republican operatives that he said did not deliver more than $12 million worth of equipment on time.
The state later settled with Blue Flame with both sides admitting no wrongdoing. The co-founder of the company defended his actions in a new interview with CBS 60 Minutes.
We have been under a lot of pressure, Blue Flames John Thomas told CBS News Lesley Stahl. And while I couldnt disagree more in some of the things people have said about me and my company, I can assure you this, first and foremost that my company and I have behaved 100% legally and ethically.
Hogan will speak at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Watch live on WJZ or WJZ.com.
For the latest information on coronavirus go to the Maryland Health Departments website or call 211. You can find all of WJZs coverage on coronavirus in Maryland here.
This story was originally published on Dec. 7, 2020.
Medical science is succeeding in the midst of a global health crisis.
Since bursting onto the scene over a year ago, the COVID-19 pandemic has so far claimed well over one million lives. The ferocious spread of the virus first witnessed in the spring is now being dwarfed by an even larger surge, with hospitalizations at record highs. More deaths will inevitably follow. Yet despite this grim reality, hope has emerged.
Medical science is progressing faster than even the optimists had expected. So far, two of the most innovative COVID-19 vaccine candidates have reported efficacy over 95 percent, and a third with slightly lower efficacy but no need for freezer storage was just announced, making future distribution easier. Other newfound medical interventions have also more than halved the death rate from the virus.
Antibodies whether spurred by a vaccine or directly injected remain our best hope for ending the pandemic. Those who survive COVID-19 produce these virus-halting proteins in the process. For everyone else still living in fear, alternative ways of acquiring antibodies may be essential. Luckily, there are two ways to get them. One is to have antibodies directly injected into you, which may confer temporary immunity to or even treat infection if it hasnt progressed very far. The other way is vaccination, which turns the body into its own antibody factory.
The global race to deliver proven antibody treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 is well underway. A slew of candidates including many made possible by advances in synthetic biology are in late-stage clinical trials. Beyond positive vaccine news, two antibody treatments by Eli Lilly and Regeneron were recently granted limited approval as treatment for COVID-19.
In March, I partnered with Leaps by Bayer, the impact investment arm of Bayer to create a visual overview of the race to develop treatments and vaccines against COVID-19. It has been a year of blindingly fast scientific progress in a year that felt like a decade of social and economic stress. said Jrg Eckhardt, Head of Leaps by Bayer. Here is an updated version showing where that race stands today.
SynBioBeta
Back in March, many scientists explored whether already-approved drugs could be reused to treat COVID, as this could deliver results quickly. Unfortunately, few of these bets paid off. The scientific method, however, did prevail. Hydroxychloroquine, the antimalarial drug touted by some as a COVID-19 remedy, did not show any benefit after a double-blinded placebo-controlled trial. In these trials, half the population receives the real drug, and the other half receives a placebo, a drug designed to appear like the real thing. Both groups are blind as to which version they are receiving and the researchers administering the experiments also dont know, to prevent any biases from those giving the drug.
We wasted a huge amount of public discourse on hydroxychloroquine, when the real story was scientists collaborating to quickly invent over a hundred vaccine and an additional one hundred antibody projects against Covid, said Karl Handelsman, a biotech investor with San Francisco investment fund Codon Capital.
Remdesivir, an Ebola-fighting drug that did win FDA approval for coronavirus, was recently slammed by the World Health Organization to have no meaningful effect on COVID-19.
Dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory steroid that was also seen as a hopeful candidate, has not shown positive results from careful trials.
And then there are treatments without any kind of scientific basis. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, a former neuroscientist, took the herbal supplement oleander extract being touted by Mike Lindell who served as President Trump's Minnesota campaign chair. Carsons condition then became serious and he was also admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center to take the same antibody treatment that president Trump had received. "You know, what happened with Mike Lindell, who is a fantastic salesperson, but not a scientist, perhaps distorts the process," Carson said at the time.
Repurposing sounded like a short cut. But people starting from scratch made antibodies and vaccines that were directly designed to target the virus showed efficacy in less than a year, said Handelsman.
Among antibody treatments that directly target the virus, two have won approval. One developed by New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals received global attention when it was infused into President Trump following his COVID-19 diagnosis. Although he appears to have beaten back his infection, no one knows for sure whether the antibody treatment actually helped as the president was at the same time also receiving other experimental drugs.
The Regeneron product, called REGN-COV2, is a mixture or cocktail of two different monoclonal antibodies, both of which target proteins on the surface of the virus. They were discovered early in the year using Regenerons VelocImmune technology, which allows researchers to quickly identify human-like antibodies in mice.
To make the drug, both antibodies in the cocktail must be grown inside cells, extracted, and then mixed together to form the final product. This manufacturing detail matters as separate supply lines are needed for each protein component. Global capacity for making antibodies was already limited before the pandemic. Some factories are now dialing down production of other antibody drugs in order to free up capacity for COVID-19 treatments.
To further complicate matters, high doses of the Regeneron cocktail may be needed. President Trump was infused with a whopping eight grams of REGN-COV2. If much smaller doses prove ineffective, the worlds finite supply and limited manufacturing capacity will not stretch far. Operation Warp Speed, launched in April by the White House to hasten COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, has poured millions of dollars into boosting factory capacity for coronavirus antibody drugs.
In October, Regeneron filed for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) with regulators in the United States. In November, REGN-COV2 was approved for limited use. An earlier trial involving hospitalized patients was halted, however, due to a possible safety concern with the drug.
An EUA was also granted in November for a different antibody drug. LY-CoV555, which is still in Phase 3 testing, was discovered by Vancouver-based AbCellera Biologics and developed by American pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Unlike Regenerons cocktail, this treatment contains just one active antibody ingredient. It may therefore become the cheaper and more available option.
But treatments based on just one antibody must do more with less. Unfortunately, it appears LY-CoV555 alone cannot treat the sickest COVID-19 patients. In October, the National Institutes of Health, which oversees clinical testing of the drug, put a stop to trials involving hospitalized patients after initial findings revealed a low likelihood that the intervention would be of clinical value for that population.
In March, we projected the arrival of the first approved antibody treatments at the end of September. They arrived in November, but having two win limited approval before the years end reveals just how quickly modern tools for antibody discovery can produce life-saving treatments.
We also projected in the spring a standard path for COVID-19 vaccine trials: Phase 1 safety testing in a small, healthy group followed by Phase 2 safety testing in an expanded cohort followed by massive Phase 3 efficacy trials. In these extraordinary times however, regulators green lit an alternative approach: for several vaccine candidates, Phase 2 testing began before Phase 1 was complete. And some Phase 3 trials commenced before any Phase 2 trials had finished. This tiled approach where one phase of a trail overlaps the end of another still allows for the same amount of safety and efficacy date to be collected over time, but at a much accelerated pace. In the midst of a global pandemic, each month shaved from the testing timeline could save thousands of lives.
Luckily, no phase of any COVID-19 vaccine trial has had to end because of safety issues, though some have paused temporarily to investigate health scares. In September, AstraZeneca paused its Phase 3 vaccine trial to investigate a rare form of inflammation that appeared in one healthy volunteer. Following an investigation, regulators allowed the trial to resume. In October, Johnson & Johnson paused its Phase 3 vaccine trial over a single unexplained illness, resuming the trial eleven days later after a safety review.
Such pauses are common in late-stage clinical trials. Among any large group of people, random illness is bound to pop up, and Phase 3 vaccine trials, which can include tens of thousands of volunteers, are no exception. Safety pauses can even be interpreted as a good thing as they reveal that scrupulous safety monitoring of the clinical trials volunteers is indeed underway.
All vaccines try to train the body to guard against an invader. Many coax the body into making its own protective antibodies, but how they accomplish this can vary. The race for COVID-19 vaccines is pitting new strategies against older, more established ones, with scientists hoping to maximize their chances of success.
Here are the most promising vaccines currently in Phase 3 testing, sorted by vaccine type.
Nucleic acid vaccines contain short gene segments either RNA or DNA which can temporarily cause your cells to produce foreign proteins. For COVID-19, it appears that inoculation with RNA molecules encoding a protein from the coronavirus is sufficient to kickstart immunity. Pfizer announced recently that its RNA vaccine candidate for COVID-19, developed in partnership with the German firm BioNTech, is more than 95 percent effective. This claim is based on initial data from a large Phase 3 trial. Moderna, which is also testing an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19, reported 94.5% efficacy from its interim Phase 3 results. These stunning positive results were delivered by a new approach with the fastest path from identified pathogen to clinical trial. A speed which I hope can now be replicated again in the future said Handelsman.
Rather than injecting RNA directly, the AstraZeneca/Oxford and Johnson & Johnson vaccines both rely on weakened cold virus to shuttle coronavirus genes into the body in order to spur an immune response. This virus-as-ferry technology is relatively new and largely unproven. Though both candidates remain promising, only one vaccine has ever been fully approved based on similar technology. That vaccine, made by the Chinese firm CanSino, is for Ebola. CanSino, as well as the Gamaleya Research Institute in Russia, are also trialing viral vector vaccines for COVID-19.
Early Phase 3 results from the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine appear to show 70% efficacy. A potential advantage of this vaccine is its stability it does not need to be stored at very cold temperatures, making it much easier to distribute.
A more conventional route to vaccination is to inject proteins or other non-genetic subunits from a pathogen. This has led to successful vaccines for whooping cough, anthrax, and cervical cancer. At the moment, only one company Novavax, based in Gaithersburg, MDhas a subunit vaccine in Phase 3 testing. That vaccine contains the coronavirus spike protein arrayed onto a recombinant protein nanoparticle.
Finally, the most established method for achieving vaccine-induced immunity is to inoculate with a weakened or killed virus directly. This method has produced successful vaccinations for polio vaccine, hepatitis A, and rabies. At present, Sinovac, Bharat Biotech based in India, and the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute in Australia are pursuing virus-based vaccines for COVID-19.
In the end, several vaccines that use different technologies will likely prove successful. This outcome would be good news for all. With more vaccine options, there will be more supply and more lives saved. Similarly, additional antibody treatments for stopping the virus as well some that counteract the immune overreaction which characterizes severe COVID-19 are likely to emerge in the coming months.
We are living through a remarkable moment in science, where it is easier than ever to build life-saving compounds using biology. That at least is something to feel good about.
Im the founder of SynBioBeta and also an operating partner at the venture fund DCVC, which is an investor in Abcellera. Leaps by Bayer is a sponsor of the SynBioBeta Conference and Newsletter.
Nursing home residents and staff members will be among the first people in the United States to receive the coronavirus vaccine, NBC News reports.
But there are significant challenges to overcome before the vaccine is broadly administered to this high-risk population, which has been hit harder than any other by the pandemic.
The federal government hascontracted with CVS and Walgreensto distribute the vaccine to long-term care facilities and open on-site clinics to vaccinate residents. Thats no small logistical feat, but its far from the only hurdle this mass vaccination effort faces.
Full coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it impacts you
Each state has to figure out where long-term care staff members must go to get vaccinated; some may have to go off-site. Public health officials are also confronting hesitancy among some workers, as well as residents and their family members, about getting a new vaccine that some are concerned has not been sufficiently tested on elderly, medically frail people.
Read the full story at NBCNews.com.
The number of coronavirus cases in the City of Houston surpassed 100,000 over the weekend.
HOUSTON The City of Houston's COVID-19 positivity rate has increased to 8.8%, according to Mayor Sylvester Turner. That's up from 8.4% from last week. The goal is to get to 5% or below.
Houston surpassed 100,000 COVID-19 cases over the weekend. As of Monday, there have been 101,300 total cases reported since the pandemic began in March.
One bright spot, Turner said, is hospitalizations were down this week and are much lower than during the summer surge.
Based on key numbers, the mayor said a curfew isn't necessary right now but it's still on the table.
I reserve the right to do it based on the numbers we are watching. That is a nuclear option. Youll hurt not only your bad actors but your good actors as well," Turner said. "Ill look at numbers, talk to medical pros first. If we need to go there, Ill go there. Not there yet to pull the trigger."
Here are other key bullet points from the Monday afternoon briefing:
On Sunday, infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Hotez said we're in a dire situation in Texas and nationally and the Thanksgiving surge hasn't even reached its peak.
"People are coming in sicker than they were in the past," Hotez said. "That gives me a lot of concern that people aren't taking this seriously."
Hotez said things will get worse before they get better.
"This is going to be a very grim next couple of months, unfortunately," Hotez said. "These next two months is when the loss of life will be at its maximum."
The virus could kill 10,000 to 15,000 more Texans by Feb. 1 so Hotez and other public health officials are urging folks to not let their guard down this holiday season.
"This is a tough time. The key is not to lose your mother, father, brother or sister when we know if get them to the other side we can get them vaccinated," Hotez said.
As Oregon COVID-19 cases climb, a surge of diagnoses are in the Portland area - OPB
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By Staff (OPB)
Dec. 8, 2020 2:22 p.m.
Another 12 people have died of COVID-19 in Oregon, including a 37-year-old man with no underlying medical conditions, state health officials said Monday. He died Nov. 29 at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, two days after being diagnosed.
The Oregon Health Authority reported that the virus appears to be widespread across the state. Of 1,331 diagnoses announced across 27 counties Monday, 330 were in Multnomah County and 225 were in Washington County. Another 134 people were diagnosed in Clackamas County.
The virus strain on hospitals has also continued to climb, with 19 coronavirus patients admitted for treatment Monday. Oregons hospitals presently house 565 COVID-19 patients, including 120 in intensive care unit beds, the Oregon Health Authority said.
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Fall sports seasons for Oregon high schools were planned to begin later this month, but the intensifying coronavirus pandemic has delayed them again.
As COVID-19 cases rise and parents push for Oregon schools to reopen, some students caught in the middle are struggling more than others.
Tags:Oregon, Health, COVID-19
The authorization under consideration for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be for "individuals 16 years of age and older." John Nacion/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images hide caption
The authorization under consideration for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine would be for "individuals 16 years of age and older."
The Food and Drug Administration released a detailed analysis Tuesday morning of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech ahead of a Thursday meeting of a group of independent experts that will advise the agency on whether to grant the vaccine an emergency use authorization.
The agency's analysis finds "no specific safety concerns identified that would preclude issuance of an EUA." Serious reactions were rare. Side effects are common, however, with a majority of study volunteers experiencing reactions at the site of injection, headaches and fatigue.
The analysis also affirms the previously stated vaccine effectiveness of 95%, assessed a week after two doses of vaccine. The vaccine doses are given 21 days apart.
The clinical data also suggest that the vaccine may be able to prevent COVID-19 after the first dose 82% effective though the FDA analysis says the available information doesn't allow for a firm conclusion on that potential effect.
The vaccine authorization under consideration is "for active immunization for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 in individuals 16 years of age and older."
On Thursday, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, an advisory group, will discuss the vaccine in an open public meeting.
The agency will ask the experts to assess whether the available scientific evidence supports the proposed emergency use of the vaccine. Specifically, the committee will be asked whether the known and potential benefits of the vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks in people 16 and older.
The FDA will also ask the experts to weigh in on what additional studies should be done by the companies to further elucidate the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine after it is available under an EUA.
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Vaccine testing continues to expand, but some groups could be left waiting till late 2021
FORT WORTH, Texas As a Cook Childrens pediatrician, Dr. Jason Terk is both at the front of the line to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and fielding constant questions from curious parents about vaccinating their children.
The COVID-19 questions come pretty much every day, he said. I think the most important message for parents to know is that vaccines are not only safe and effective but absolutely necessary.
For many kids, though, it wont be an option just yet.
Children are not little adults, Terk said. We have to understand that their biological systems are not just miniature versions of us.
Pfizers vaccine, likely to ship out first, has been tested in kids 12 years and older.
In a statement, a Pfizer spokesperson said:
We have submitted available safety data for the approximately 100 trial participants in the 12-15-year-old cohort who have received their second dose. The data will be submitted as part of Thursdays Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting and we will address any questions on these data then.
Moderna hasnt started testing in children but plans to soon.
I promise you I started getting calls the last two weeks already of the patients whose parents want to have the vaccine for them, said Dr. Flor Munoz, a pediatric infectious disease professor at Baylor College of Medicine.
She believes it could be the end of 2021 before approval of vaccines goes down to the infant level. She says globally the AstraZeneca vaccine has been tested on children down to the age of 5 years old.
We need to make sure that the dose that we give them is going to be safe in terms of not giving them a lot of reactions, which could happen with younger children, she said.
Its unclear where children would fall in the distribution line if the vaccines are authorized for them. Munoz expects those with underlying health conditions like heart and lung diseases or obesity could be grouped together with all at-risk health groups.
While children play a key role in spreading the virus, most arent at high-risk, so Munoz says there was less urgency in testing the vaccine on them.
Pregnant women, though, do struggle more with the virus and are more likely to end up hospitalized than non-pregnant women the same age. They also havent been included in testing. Munoz expects that to happen before infant approval happens.
The reason I said it might be sooner is they're adults, so it's easier to make a bridge or a comparison between non-pregnant healthy adults and pregnant adults, Munoz said.
Regardless of the timeline, Munoz and Terk say when a vaccine is authorized or approved for adults and children, everyone should be confident it will be safe. They worry about anti-vaccine entities attempting to stir up misinformation and myths.
Of course, I would take it and of course people should take it, Munoz said.
I'm looking forward to getting mine, Terk said. Unfortunately, we had a witness to the outbreaks of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases that are simply self-imposed wounds.
For now, their advice is to get caught up on the flu shot and keep masking and distancing.
It's extremely important that we maintain our vigilance, even after COVID-19 vaccines are deployed, Terk said.
