Graham County Health Director Beth Booth remains cautiously-optimistic, as the likelihood of a successful COVID-19 vaccine grows.
Booth said it was still very early in the vaccine’s research and that once a vaccine was available, it would first be administered to healthcare workers and others most at risk for the novel coronavirus.
She said a vaccine would most likely be available by late spring, 2021.
“It will not be seen in the larger community until late spring or summer,” Booth said.
However, she said the vaccine plans have been discussed among her and fellow health leaders across the state of North Carolina for some time.
“We have weekly conference calls with the state and the vaccine has come up in the weekly conference calls since August,” Booth said.
Vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have shown high rates of success in early trials. However, Booth emphasized that it was still early in the development process for both vaccines. She also said the creation of such vaccines was unprecedented, with vaccine development usually taking years, if not decades.
She gave the example of the chickenpox vaccine, which took 25 years to develop.
“Most vaccines run clinical trials for years,” Booth said. “This one’s running on weeks.”
She said the news from the pharmaceutical industry was good, but again emphasized that it was still early in the process. She encouraged the community to understand that it was indeed good news on the vaccine front, but not to believe everything they read or heard about.
“Anything is better than nothing,” Booth said.
As the likelihood of a vaccine grows, Ingles Markets has announced that the company will be involved in administration and distribution of the vaccine, once one is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ingles Pharmacies will receive direct allocations of the vaccine and will help distribute it through its store locations, according to a press release issued Thursday, Nov. 19. The Ingles program is a partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Booth said once a large enough number of people were vaccinated, it would create herd immunity to the novel coronavirus. Herd immunity would create a dead end for the virus by giving it fewer hosts.
“Someone who receives the vaccine is no longer contagious,” Booth said. “You vaccinate a large portion of the population, you no longer have a host.”
She also said the vaccine would be voluntary.
“We will not be forcing the vaccine,” Booth said.
COVID testing
In addition to the vaccine news, the OptumServe testing site will remain open through the end of the year, which is an extension of the original Nov. 28 cutoff.
Hours for the site are Monday, Tuesday and Friday, 3-7 p.m. and 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday.