UMD students share their reactions to the recent vaccine candidate

Researchers have tested 43,538 participants for the coronavirus vaccine (Council on Foreign Relations News)

As there are more than 200,000 current coronavirus deaths in the U.S., the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the biotechnology company BioNTech have found a vaccine candidate proven to be 90% effective in preventing symptomatic illnesses, according to Pfizer News. Moderna, another biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also has a vaccine pending the emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. Both companies expect to have 40 million vaccines available by the end of December, according to CNN News.

           Although the vaccine will be available in the U.S., there will only be enough to vaccinate 20 million people as two doses are required for each recipient. Due to the expectancy that Pfizer and Moderna will only have a limited amount of vaccines available soon, states must decide how they will ration the vaccine according to their top priority groups.    

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposes that frontline healthcare workers receive the first batch, because they are at a higher risk of catching the disease than others.

Sophomore biology major, Kaiya Rice, said that she is glad researchers have found a possible solution to this pandemic, but she is not looking forward to getting vaccinated once it is available. 

      “I’m skeptical of how they’ve created a vaccine in such a short amount of time. I will not be getting the vaccine, something about it just doesn’t feel safe to me at all, ” said Rice.

      “I think it’s quite absurd that they’re already coming up with a vaccine this early. I will not be taking the vaccine when it releases, or at least not for as long as possible until they’re able to monitor the long-term effects,” said Rianat Alao, a junior mechanical engineering major.

       Alao compares the virus to other illnesses, posing the question of how scientists have yet to find cures for HIV and cancer but have developed a vaccine for coronavirus within less than a year.

      Jannah Freeman, a junior English major, is also hesitant about being vaccinated. “ I want to get the vaccination, but I know I won’t be trying the vaccine until maybe a month or two after it's released. I am worried this vaccine was rushed and may not even do what it's intended to, ” said Freeman, who is also a member of the University Student Judiciary.

       Freeman stated her concerns about how although the vaccine was created to reduce concerns about the virus, she believes it could possibly do more harm than good.

      Although the U.S. is in a state of emergency for a vaccine, these students question how researchers were able to create a vaccine in such a short amount of time.

        Pfizer’s vaccine has used a new type of technology called messenger-RNA (mRNA), which has not been used when it comes to mass human vaccination. Experts say that details such as safety concerns, who might benefit the most and how long it will work are still unknown.

In many cases, vaccines use small portions of the virus to provoke the immune system. But mRNA trains the immune system to target the first sign of the virus, as this data has been studied on 94 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Pfizer News.