Last week, on Aug. 23, a tremendous development was made in the fight against COVID-19. The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) approved the Pfizer vaccine as a prevention for the virus. 

How did the vaccine get its approval, though? According to Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center of Biologics Evaluation and Research, it was a laborious challenge.

“Our scientific and medical experts conducted an incredibly thorough and thoughtful evaluation of this vaccine,” Marks said in an FDA News Release. “We evaluated scientific data and information… and performed a detailed assessment of the manufacturing processes.”

With this new approval, a question of if vaccine rates will increase arises. PLHS Nurse Annette Jeanes has a hopeful outlook on the issue.

“I hope that those people that were waiting for that stamp of approval go and get a vaccination,” Jeanes said. “I hope that it will alleviate some of their fears.”

Vaccine rates have been an issue for a while, but Janet Woodcock, the Acting Commissioner of the FDA, believes that the vaccine is more than safe to use.

“As the first FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine, the public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” Woodcock said in an FDA News Release. 

Marks added onto the safety of the vaccine, believing there should be no worries while receiving or administering it, as the vaccine was tested with the rigorous and high standards the FDA uses to test all vaccines within the US.

However, Jeanes advocates that the pandemic is far from over, and that precautions are still needed to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“You need additional safeguards to protect humans,” Jeanes said. “Washing your hands and staying away from people who are sick, for example.”

With over a year of developments being made towards the end of the global pandemic, more and more developments came out as a way to prevent COVID from shutting down the world again. Now with an approved vaccine in hand, one can only hope for the ceasement of this disease. And as Jeanes said, “The vaccine is a piece to help solve this puzzle.”