By Guy Page
Formal FDA approval of the Covid-19 vaccine is “many months” away, Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine said at a press conference Tuesday.
Vermont Daily asked the commissioner, “Employers can’t mandate vaccination until after formal FDA approval. When do you think that FDA decision would be made? Weeks away? Months? What’s the timeline?”
Health Commissioner Mark Levine replied: “I honestly don’t know. I don’t believe anyone knows.”
Vermont Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine
There’s normally more than one study, the studies need to be long enough, and there needs to be ample time to evaluate the studies. “That usually means quite a few months. I would think it would be well into … many months.”
The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines created by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are officially in Vermont, and thousands have already been inoculated against the virus.
On Dec. 15, the first Vermonter to get vaccinated was an emergency department nurse at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Since then, the first wave of vaccination efforts have focused on health care workers and residents and employees of long-term care facilities.
Here s what to know about the vaccine and who can get it now that it s here.
What does vaccine arrival look like?
As of Dec. 29, the state has been allocated about 32,000 doses of the two vaccines available for distribution, Agency of Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said. The Pfizer vaccine began arriving in Vermont on Dec. 14, and the Moderna vaccine on Dec. 22.
The COVID-19 vaccine is in Vermont: What to know about the roll-out msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.