Henry Min
Mr. Ippolito
Ap Biology
12/13/20
Saey, Tina Hesman. “The FDA Has Authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine. Now What?” Science News, 12 Dec. 2020, www.sciencenews.org/article/fda-authorize-pfizer-vaccine-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic.
In Tina Hesman Saye’s “The FDA has authorized PFizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Now what?”, the author does a good job over giving an overview of the weeks and months to come. More specifically, Saye goes over all of the steps and precautions the government is going to take when distributing the COVID-19 vaccine. During December, “the vaccine [will start] to be shipped, but won’t have a widespread impact for several months” due to the limited amount of vaccines. Only around three million vaccines will be distributed, and then the next three will be shipped to the same people for their second shots. The next step is for scientists to look for side effects and other health issues once giving a vaccine. Throughout Pfizer’s vaccine trials, the most common side effects were minor fevers, headaches, and fatigue. This is a big factor as “two people have had serious allergic reactions after getting Pfizer’s vaccine” and it has to be fail proof. Another step is figuring out if people who already had COVID-19 need to be vaccinated or not. “A small number of people in the PFizer trial had antibodies in their blood indicating that they had been infected prior to [being vaccinated]”, and this shows that even people who have developed antibodies may need to be vaccinated. After this scientist will decide whether to vaccinate people in the placebo group. The controversy surrounding this is how vaccinating placebo patients will delegitimize their results, and therefore there are some scientists who don’t support vaccinating placebo patients. If everything goes right, then Pfizer will decide if the vaccine is ready for children. They believe that because children develop milder symptoms compared to adults, there is no rush to vaccinate all children yet. Hopefully if everything falls into place, then the FDA should give their full approval for the vaccine.
I enjoyed reading this article as I am interested in the current state of the vaccine and COVID-19 in general. The author's structure of her article made it really easy for me to understand exactly what Pfizer’s plan is in order for the vaccine to reach as many people as possible.
Holden D’Avico
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Bio/Current Event #9
12/14/20
Saey, Tina Hesman. “The FDA Has Authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine. Now What?” Science News, 12 Dec. 2020, www.sciencenews.org/article/fda-authorize-pfizer-vaccine-covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic.
Link to blog:
https://bronxvilleapbiology.blogspot.com/2020/12/henry-min-mr.html
Henry’s review of “The FDA has authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine. Now what?”, by Tina Hesman Saey was straightforward and informative. The first aspect that was well presented is when Henry gives a very detailed summary of the article in the first paragraph. The majority of the first paragraph was dedicated to a summary of the article which allowed the reader to fully understand what the article was about. From reading Henry’s review, I learned a lot about the logistics regarding the distribution of the vaccine. The second aspect that was well presented is when Henry detailed the controversy and uncertainty surrounding the vaccine. This allowed me to comprehend how difficult it will be to return to normal life as there are still many unknowns surrounding the vaccine and virus such as whether people with antibodies need to be vaccinated and when children will have access to the vaccine. The third and final aspect that was well presented is when Henry mentions why this topic is meaningful to him in the second paragraph. Henry says that the article he chose intrigued him because he is interested in both the virus and vaccine. Henry’s personal interest in this topic shows that he is writing passionately about this article.
My first suggestion is to identify some strengths and weaknesses of the article. As a reader, I would’ve liked to know about some suggestions Henry has for the article he read or even some aspects of the article that he disliked. My second suggestion is to describe the relevance more or connect to society right now in a stronger way. Obviously the vaccine and virus is something that everyone is aware of, however, I would have liked to read about the smaller impacts of the vaccine and Henry’s thoughts on them.
One fact that I was surprised by is that two people have had serious allergic reactions after taking Pfizer’s vaccine. The media portrayed the vaccine as if it was perfect which is understandable, however, I didn’t even realize that two people had such strong reactions to the vaccine and was a bit shocked by this. Although some people experienced these reactions, every vaccine can bring out severe reactions in a few people so this is normal and not something that I would consider as dangerous or negative.