Nine months after the COVID-19 stay at home order was put in place on March 14th, various medical giants have made large progressions towards creating a vaccine for the virus to aid in herd immunity. Two of the biggest names that have begun medical trials are Pfizer and AstraZeneca, both of which have completed medical trials on sample studies of American citizens. 

“I think that vaccines are definitely going to be the right path to continue on to overcome the pandemic, but as ridiculous as this comes off, some people think that COVID-19 and its effects are controversial, and with that, I think that a significant number of people will not take the vaccine,” said NDB senior, Adriana DiCorpo. “All in all, a vaccine is the next extremely needed step for healthcare workers, those who have been infected, the elderly, essential workers, and more.” 

In the Pfizer trial, they brought in around 42,000 people to study and divided the group equally. Providing the first group the formulated vaccine, and giving the second group a placebo to enable an unbiased trial to occur. As results have come back from each of the clinical trials, success rates have been deemed between 70 and 95 percent, being high enough to obtain herd immunity among the people if the vaccine is approved and distributed. 

Based on these trials, each of the companies has been able to submit to the Food and Drug Administration to enable them to start producing the vaccines to pump out to the masses in the coming months. 

In terms of how the vaccine will be distributed, it is vastly undecided, but students are hopeful that it will enable them to head back to school in the coming months. 

“The news that a vaccine may be coming in the near future has given me lots of hope,” said NDB senior, Julia Granucci. “With the proper use of masks and social distancing, I am very optimistic that the spike will plateau and we will be able to soon safely start to get back to normal.” 

Until a vaccine has been approved, mask up and keep up the social distancing in order to protect yourself and others!