induce neutralizing antibodies in the 38 people who were given it, Offit said. While “nobody died,” he said that relying on such a small sample of patients “doesn’t enable you to say anything about efficacy, doesn’t enable you to say anything about safety.”
Offit, who is a member of the National Institutes of Health COVID vaccine working group, said he worries about the precedent being set by the Russians in proclaiming victory on an untested vaccine. He said he was struck by the political undertones in Putin’s vaccine claims.
“It’s amazing that this was a political announcement,” Offit said. “What worries me is that our administration would interpret this as anything other than what it is, which is that Russia, if anything, is behind where we are in the United States on this vaccine. … This is just Vladimir Putin being political. I don’t think he’s honest when he says that they’ve shown that the vaccine’s effective. They can’t possibly know that yet.”
So what do you think? Are you going to wait and see or are you going to be one of the first to take a U.S. approved vaccine? And if you are one of the first, does that mean you trust the healthcare system or is this an exception?
There are so many questions we need to answer and will answer as the months go on. We just need to be safe, stay diligent with our health, our bodies and our hygiene and believe that we will get through this together.