Is the vaccine safe? Read this Oxford University update and decide

While both the Pfizer & Moderna vaccines have already been approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and are currently being rolled out for essential care workers in the medical field across the globe, many are still curious as to which vaccine will be approved next in the battle against COVID-19.

With the good news of the vaccine’s safety & effectiveness rate, we think it’s a perfect time for a vaccine update from Oxford in what we hope is yet another giant step on the path to ending the coronavirus and the hardships that came from it.

Let’s first revisit the long and yet surprisingly quick path to the coveted vaccine.

Early COVID-19

Back in January 2020, we first learned about how the coronavirus had made its way to the U.S. when the first American patient was diagnosed per the CDC. As soon as states entered lockdown beginning in March, all anybody wanted to know was how long it would take before we could develop a vaccine to fight this virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has been the primary source of information & updates regarding COVID-19, including when a vaccine would become available.

Early on, Dr. Fauci stressed how long it takes to manufacture a vaccine that is both safe & effective, noting how it would be, at the very earliest a year before any type of vaccine-related breakthrough would occur. Until then, many of us tried to do the right thing by following CDC guidelines, including wearing a face mask and practicing social-distancing.

Vaccine breakthroughs

Scientists & health experts broke major ground in their timeline to create a safe & effective vaccine to combat COVID-19, as we learned as early as summer how quickly we were progressing towards a vaccine manufactured from a variety of companies, including Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Oxford.

Each company was required to first enter clinical trials which operate in three phases, where each phase implements more & more test subjects to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine in use.

In December 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had officially approved the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, specifically for healthcare workers as well as some members of the elderly community.

Nearly a week later, Moderna too was approved for emergency use by the FDA, and now it appears that even more reinforcements are on the way to combat COVID-19, as the Oxford vaccine nears approval with a possible rollout date being targeted for Jan 4, 2021.

Oxford vaccine update

Good news! The United Kingdom is expected to approve the vaccine produced by Oxford-AstraZeneca later this week.

It’s estimated the Oxford vaccine could even be rolled out & utilized as early as January 4, 2021, in the UK, stating how they have “millions of doses ready to go”.

Once the Oxford vaccine gains approval, it shouldn’t be too much longer before the U.S. authorizes the use of the Oxford vaccine as well, joining Pfizer & Moderna in the fight to help protect those most susceptible to the virus before it’s rolled out in larger communities of the general public.

Is it safe?

An update by the CEO of AstraZeneca regarding the Oxford vaccine says how the vaccine shows “95% efficacy and is 100% effective in preventing severe illness.”

Currently, it’s believed that the Pfizer vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95%, while Moderna shows a 94.1% efficacy rate.

While the Oxford vaccine study primarily utilized test subjects who were under the age of fifty-five, it is still believed by health experts that the Oxford vaccine will work well for the older community, too.

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What do you think? Does this current Oxford vaccine update & data say enough regarding the vaccine’s safety? Comment below and let us know!