First coronavirus vaccine could be approved this week

The chief advisor for Operation Warp Speed says the FDA will hold its review of the Pfizer vaccine Thursday.

If the agency grants approval, the vaccine could be shipped within 24 hours.

“I don’t ever want to take a chance of getting this thing, ever,” said Ann Brooks. “So I’ll take the vaccine.”

This, from an Everett realtor woman who says she was initially reluctant to join her husband and participate in the Moderna coronavirus vaccine trial.

“I was afraid, you know,” Brooks said. “But then I found out it wasn’t the virus that they were putting in us. It was the modified RNA string. So that made me feel better about doing it.”

And now?

“I’ve been apart of the process,” said Brooks. “I’ve seen how scientific and how regimented it is. And I have never felt unsafe.”

The chief advisor to the President’s Operation Warp Speed says the FDA will review the Pfizer vaccine this Thursday.

“The FDA is making sure it does it the way it always does it,” said Dr. Moncef Slaoui.

He is confident it will get the green light.

“The minute it’s approved, the shipments will start,” he said.  “It should take them about 24 hours to make it to the various immunization sites that the various jurisdiction and states have told us to ship vaccines to them.”

Dr. Slaoui says it is the light at the end of a dark and deadly tunnel. But it is not time yet to fully relax.

“Continue to wear our masks, distance, wash our hands, pay attention to what we are doing,” he said, “to make sure that we are there by the spring to benefit from the vaccine.”

“I said you know, ‘it took me a while to say yes, but once I did, I realized, you know, I’m doing this for my country,’ " said Ann Brooks as she recalled what a technician said to her when she joined the Moderna vaccine trial.

“And she said ‘oh, no, honey. You’re doing it for the world.’ "

She plans to take the vaccine whenever it is approved.  And she’ll encourage those she knows to take it, too.

Cox Media Group