Doctors say life won’t exactly return to normal once the
COVID-19 vaccine is made available.
It will take at least until May 2021 for everyone to get
access to vaccine. Even then, when you get both doses, it still will take about
six weeks for the vaccine to be fully processed in your body.
Dr. Purvi Parikh, of NYU Langone Health and member of the Allergy & Asthma Network, says "For
many months, we're still going to be living in a similar situation. We're still
going to be masking, washing hands, social distancing."
It's also important to keep in mind that even though the
Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective, this still means there's a 5% chance you could
get infected and pass it on.
"Not only can you still be carrier, you can actually
still get sick too," Dr. Parikh says.
As well, even if you are vaccinated, not everyone else
around you will be, either because they don't have access to it yet or because
they refuse to get it.
"If people don't take it, we won't reach that end
point," Dr. Parikh says. "I know there's hesitancy, but the virus is
far worse in my opinion than the actual vaccine or any potential
pitfalls."
Dr. Anthony Fauci says kids and pregnant women will have to
wait until January or February.
He says, "You go in, and you do a phase one trial to
show that the vaccine is safe and that it induces the kind of response that is
comparable to the response in adult, normal individuals that you know protects
them."
Now that the Food and Drug Administration has granted its
approval, within 28 to 48 hours 2.9 million doses will be shipped out.
Early next week, the shots will be administered to nursing
home residents and staff, and high risk health care workers.