With Covid 19 cases dropping in Florida and schools are beginning to open up again, the public has started to question what’s going on with vaccines.

The Florida Health government site released the  “Interim Guidance for Immunization Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic” by the CDC to, as stated by Florida Health, “help immunization providers in a variety of clinical settings plan for the safe vaccine administration during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The site includes information on resources and how vaccine administration is going to proceed, like how immunization providers in a variety of clinical and alternative settings are going to provide safe administration of vaccines during the pandemic, how healthcare providers may administer vaccines to children and adolescents, pregnant women, and adults, how mothers can prevent mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B during Covid related disruptions, what vaccines are recommended, and includes the standards for Adult Immunization Practice. You can find all this information and more on the site linked above.

In terms of what’s going to happen in Florida concerning the vaccine, the state issued in August that a vaccine pilot program will take place in Orlando that the federal government has created. The Tampa Bay Times claims that Florida has been invited to be part of a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine pilot group. The experimental vaccine is called AZD122 which is produced by AstraZeneca with the University of Oxford, and the vaccine is one of five that are in the middle of Phase 3 testing, as stated by The Sun Sentinel that received this information from Dr. Larry Bush, the lead immunologist on this clinical trial. So far, the vaccines have been proven to produce antibodies, but there are still more tests to be done to make sure it is fully safe for the pilot program.

This program plans to consist of 5 million vaccine doses to be distributed by the end of October. However, the date is still being determined as there seem to be doubts about safety and whether enough of the vaccine doses will be produced in time since the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) would have to approve the emergency use of one or more of the vaccines being developed and race through the third and final phase of the standard trial traditionally relied upon before widespread use of the vaccine, as stated by The Tampa Bay Times. In fact, Click Orlando states that the program is currently on hold. There also seems to be a high demand of people wanting to take the vaccine or participate in the pilot program to distribute a vaccine in time. zFor instance, we administered a poll where we had students in West Boca High School choose whether they would take the vaccine once it comes out, and 59% said they will take the vaccine while 41% said they will not, which demonstrates how much of a high demand there is.

Overall, a vaccine pilot program will be administered sometime this year or next year, as the date is to be determined since trials for safety aren’t over yet, and it has been put on hold. But, do not fret, the pilot program and official vaccine will be administered as soon as possible. Officials are all working 24/7 to bring vaccines out for the people that want it.