'We Don't Have Enough Data': Concerns Mount Over Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccination

Phizer, one of the world’s premier biopharmaceutical companies has announced that its mRNA-based vaccine (bNT162B2) has demonstrated efficacy against COVID-19 in trial participants who have not previously contracted the virus. Skeptics, including many of the panelists featured on Tuesday’s #RolandMartinUnfiltered have considerable concerns surrounding the next steps for the vaccine.

After infectious disease specialist Dr. Alexea M. Gaffney explained the details of an mRNA vaccine, and mentioned that uninfected people will need two doses -- probably taken 3-4 weeks apart -- panelists discussed their apprehensions.

Republican strategist Joseph Pinnion questioned whether or not the vaccine will be approved for Black people and women to take, as he explained there are some blood pressure medications that have certain similar limitations. “Those are the types of things hopefully we can get to come out of this and get out of a Trump-centric approach to a global health crisis that has impacted too many lives,” he said.

Bennett College President, Julianne Malveaux stated that the distribution of the vaccination will have to be kept somewhere “way below freezing” and most places do not have the capacity of that level of coldness. “Are we going to have to develop refrigerated trucks to get this out?” she said. “This is good news for Pfizer, it’s good news for America...we don’t know whether this is going to be good for older people, so there are a lot of questions to be asked.”

Communications strategist, Kellye Bethea believed the logistics in making sure that every American gets the vaccine are steep. “I don’t know exactly how that is going to work given that we are in the middle of a pandemic and some of the way things need to get done are limited right now,” she said. “We are still at 10 million cases and almost a quarter of a million deaths in this country, so we are already behind the ball in getting this vaccine created let alone distributed.”

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