Associated Press
HARRISBURG – Monday marked day one of distributing the newly approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine across Pennsylvania.
Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said during a conference call Monday 83 hospitals in 66 counties are receiving the vaccine this week, “It’s tremendously exciting and our team has been working on this project for months and months and months, and working with all our healthcare partners and operation warp-speed and the CDC. So its tremendously satisfying to get the vaccine and start immunizing.”
Dr. Levine says Pennsylvania will receive 97,500 vaccine doses this week, which come in trays of 975 doses. Dr. Levine continued to urge Pennsylvanians to continue following mitigation orders however, saying it won’t be until at least the spring into the summer for distribution to the general public.
Many skeptics say the vaccine’s clinical trials were pushed through too quickly, but Dr. Levine disagrees, “The pharmaceutical companies received billions of dollars from the federal government, who all developed the vaccine at the same time. That’s not usually how it works, but that is the heart of the development process at operation warp-speed. They have gone through the same full, initial clinical trials that any vaccine would go through.”
Dr. Levine was then asked about getting vaccinated, along with Governor Wolf; Dr. Levine says they’ll discuss that soon.
