When will the Coronavirus vaccine be available? The exact answer is not known, as the development of the vaccine is under process. But many people started bombarding pharmacies with queries over availability of COVID-19 vaccine.
A pharmacy in Wisconsin's Milwaukee had to remind their customers that they do not have a Coronavirus vaccine as people continue to ask for it. As per reports, the Walgreens Pharmacy on 76th Center was forced to place a signboard in the window reading, "COVID-19 vaccine not yet available."
This is happening as many people get confused between the availability of flu shots and a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 infection which has killed over the 223,900 people in the US.
'Vaccine is Available'
Dr. Hashim Zaibak, a pharmacist at Hayat Pharmacy, told WISN that many times customers said that "Well I was driving by Walgreens and I saw a sign that the vaccine is available." But then the customers were told that "Yeah, that was the flu vaccine, it wasn't really the COVID-19 vaccine."
He explained that when people are driving, they see only one word—vaccine—and they just relate it with the Coronavirus caused disease, but "it's really not the vaccine". This confusion may be linked to the misinformation being spread across the social media platforms and the uncertainty about when the Coronavirus vaccine may become available.
Zaibak said that "[We] share with them the facts. [We] tell them there is no vaccine now, but we know that it [COVID-19 vaccine] is coming soon." But he also said that the flu vaccine is very important for everyone in any year, but in 2020 this has become more important due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, Zaibak advised people to get tested for COVID-19 if they develop any symptoms or believe that they may have been exposed.
When is COVID-19 Vaccine Coming?
As the US reported over 83,000 cases on Friday, October 23, it is also a sign of how Coronavirus is dominating the country. At this moment, all that people are waiting for only one thing—a safe vaccine.
But as per the US infectious-disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, he thinks that the general public might not get a COVID-19 vaccine until mid-2021. "The projection I have made ... is that sometime in November or December most likely the end of November... the beginning of December we will know that a vaccine is safe and effective and I am cautiously optimistic that it will be," he said. But as per Fauci, "if you talk about getting it to the major proportion of the population, that will be obviously several months into 2021.
