Utah’s vaccine plan and staying safe in the meantime

Today on “In the Hive,” we hear about Utah’s plan to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine to residents. Two drug-makers, Pfizer and Moderna, have announced promising vaccine trial results and state health officials say the first doses could be available to Utah hospital workers as early as mid-December. After that there would be a phased rollout to other healthcare employees and residents of long-term care facilities as early as January, and to other vulnerable workers by March. For the general public, the vaccine likely wouldn’t be available until June or July of next year. The plan is contingent on some variables – chief among them FDA approval.

With an apparent light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, we check in with two medical researchers to get their thoughts on the vaccine development progress. While there’s reason for optimism, both guests today stress that the worst of the pandemic may still be ahead of us, and now is not the time to relax our efforts to prevent the spread of a deadly disease.

Guests:
Dr. Emily Spivak, infectious disease physician at the University of Utah
Dr. Stephen Goldstein, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Utah specializing in coronavirus evolution

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