Vaccines continue to roll out around the country

Vaccines continue to roll out around the country

 

As the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the United States passed 18 million, more than 614,000 people in the United States have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. There are now two vaccines authorized for emergency use -- one from Pfizer and the other from Moderna.    The first wave of vaccinations prioritizes frontline health care workers and long-term care facility residents and staff.   For so long, many doctors like Dr. Paul Bradley have been putting themselves in harm’s way. "I work every day in a petri dish," said Bradley, an internist in Savannah, Georgia, who has treated more than a hundred coronavirus patients. "I am at great risk."   And he has had to make sacrifices -- the greatest being that he has never held his first two grandchildren, who were born in April and July.   Last Wednesday, Bradley had the chance to be vaccinated. He did it with his daughter, Dr. Brooke Halpern, the mother of one of those children.   "It's just profound. It's so simple, but it's profound," he said. "This is the hope to return to normalcy."   The two vaccines are both two doses, taken three to four weeks apart. Enough vaccinations for 20 million people are expected to be produced by the end of the year, but it "may bleed into the first week (of January) to get those distributed and vaccinated," US Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir said Monday.