The first COVID-19 vaccine, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, was produced in record-breaking time and has already begun being distributed to the states. Not long after the vaccine was announced, another COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine — with another three in the making.

According to the FDA website, “Two different mRNA vaccines have now shown remarkable effectiveness of about 95% in preventing COVID-19 disease in adults.” Referring to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

In Michigan, only health care workers are permitted to receive the vaccine as the state is in phase 1a of distribution. The next phase, phase 1b, will begin on Jan. 11. This is when Michigan Medicine patients, persons 65 years of age or older and frontline essential workers in critical infrastructure are permitted to receive the vaccine. The vaccine will be coming soon into Fenton.

There have been many concerns from the people about the Pfizer vaccine, including corners being cut and not enough testing time. However, the Michigan Health website reported, “The entire process went faster than usual for explainable reasons, but still followed the usual steps for testing and review.” These explainable reasons include faster modern scientific tools, a large number of citizens volunteering for clinical trials and with how easy the coronavirus spreads, it was easy to see who in those trials got sick with COVID-19.

The Pfizer vaccine requires two shots in the muscle of the upper arm taken 21 days apart and is recommended for people aged 16 years and older. The side effects include pain, swelling and redness all in the arm and chills, tiredness and a headache throughout the rest of the body. These side effects happen one to two days after being vaccinated and go away after a few days. Similarly, the Moderna vaccine requires two shots in the muscle of the upper arm taken 28 days apart and has the same side effects as the Pfizer vaccine.

The three other COVID vaccines in the making are the AstraZeneca vaccine, Janssen vaccine and Novavax vaccine. These vaccines are in phase three clinical trials or being planned.

According to President Donald Trump as stated on his Twitter, “The vaccines are being delivered to the states by the Federal Government far faster than they can be administered.” This is due to the high demand for the vaccines, therefore, states are limiting who can get either vaccines first. More distributions of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines will be sent out as they are administered.