UMD School of Medicine professor answers FOX 5's vaccine questions
WASHINGTON - University of Maryland School of Medicine's Dr. Wilbur Chen answered some of the biggest questions about Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine and the vaccination process and how that will impact the lives of Americans moving forward during the pandemic.
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Questions about the vaccine
As some of the first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine are going into arms across the country and in our area, we're taking some of the biggest questions you might have to the experts. FOX 5's Evan Lambert spoke to a vaccine expert from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the video above.
Here are some of Dr. Chen's answers:
Q: When will vaccines allow things to go back to normal (large maskless events)?:
A: "Hopefully by next fall...There's not gonna be large numbers of people that are vaccinated until we get to the end of the summer so I think again it's probably toward the end of the summer that we'll be able to open up much more."
Q: Should we be worried about any long-term side effects of these vaccines?
A: "Virtually all the vaccines that we've developed longterm consequences that come about are usually not the types that are life threatening enough that it would make me not decide to not get vaccinated, especially in the face of a global pandemic in which I could be hospitalized or die."
Q: When your family or social circle is vaccinated, is it then safe to interact with that group?
A: "I think it would be OK to meet up with them in still limited groups. I don't think that we should go crazy and have 300 person parties or something."
Q: Will people be given the choice of which vaccine to take?
A: Dr. Chen told FOX 5 probably not in the first several months of vaccination, given that supply will be limited. It's possible in the fall people who haven't yet been vaccinated will be able to choose, but in the meantime Dr. Chen advises people to think of vaccines that are authorized as worth getting.
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