By: Eileen Jaksik

Covid-19 has affected the world immensely, causing people to change their way of living. There have been many ideas of ways to prevent the coronavirus from spreading even further. Some of the precautions are wearing a face mask (covering your nose and under your chin), separating yourself six feet apart from others, and CDC scientists have been preparing a Covid-19 vaccine.

The vaccine is being released in phases (1a-1c), phase 1a was released to physicians and long term health care residents on December 3, 2020. The CDC decided to release the vaccine to phases 1b and 1c at the same time. Phase 1b is front line essential workers, such as firefighters, police officers, corrections officers, food and agricultural workers, United States Postal Service workers, manufacturing workers, grocery store workers, public transit workers, and those who work in the educational sector (teachers, support staff, and daycare workers). Phase 1c is people aged 65-74 years because they are at high risk of hospitalization, illness, and death from COVID-19. People aged 16-64 years with underlying medical conditions which increase the risk of serious, life-threatening complications from COVID-19 and other essential workers like people who work in transportation, finance, home development, etc. Phase 1b and 1c were released on December 22, 2020. They have yet to release it to the full public, but they are discussing possible dates to release the vaccine.  

The vaccine is still under high development and is going to keep developing to become highly effective. The Covid-19 Vaccine is under a clinical trial to see how to improve and change the vaccine for the better. The vaccine has given out to 16,525,281 administered doses and the total amount of vaccines distributed is 35,990,150 as of January 20, 2021 for just phases 1a-1c. 

The vaccine can not give you covid-19, but it does take a few weeks for our bodys to build up immunity, so you can catch the Corona Virus by going out and not being precautions. The vaccine is trying to teach our immune systems to recognize and fight against this virus. 

There are always side effects when it comes to vaccines and medicine. Sharp pain in the arm where you get the vaccine injected, fatigue, headache, chills, fever, and muscle/joint pain are all side effects from the Corona Virus Vaccine. 

The vaccine is an option to help prevent the virus, it is your choice whether you want to get the vaccine or not. There are still other precautions if you choose the vaccine is not for you, so make sure to always be safe!