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Millions of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19 are being shipped around the United States right now, and millions more are on the way. But there are 330 million Americans, and according to expert estimates, it may be the summer or even the fall before everyone who wants the vaccine can get it.
So who gets to be vaccinated first?
That’s the question that the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a panel of medical and public policy experts that reports to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), tackled in its latest guidelines. Under the new guidelines from a meeting on December 20, health care workers and those in nursing homes will go first, followed by those 75 and older and front-line essential workers, followed by those 65 and older and other essential workers.
As a business reporter, I write about small businesses opening and closing, manufacturing, food and drink, labor issues and economic data. I particularly love writing about the impact of state and federal policy on local businesses. I also do some education reporting, covering colleges in southeastern Connecticut and regional K-12 issues.
Erica Moser
As a business reporter, I write about small businesses opening and closing, manufacturing, food and drink, labor issues and economic data. I particularly love writing about the impact of state and federal policy on local businesses. I also do some education reporting, covering colleges in southeastern Connecticut and regional K-12 issues.
“The process while sped up, all the critical steps actually more than critical all the regular steps, were followed,” said Omer.
He adds emergency use doesn’t mean emergency development. In fact, the technology in both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines has been around for ten years. It’s called m-RNA.
“m-RNA is simply a piece of strand of genetic material, versus a whole virus that’s weakened,” said Kagya Amoako, Ph.D., assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of New Haven.
Amoako says there is no COVID-19 virus in the vaccine. It’s just a piece of the cell that activates your immune system to make antibodies.
Registered nurse Jennifer Woznick administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for clinical pharmacist Zach Binkowski in front of St. Vincentâs Medical Center, in Bridgeport, Conn. Dec. 15, 2020. The hospital received their first shipment of the vaccine and began administering shots to medical staff.
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media