The Center For Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) has notified public health officials in Arkansas to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high risk groups as soon as early November.
The Arkansas Department Of Health has started a committee to work on logistics for what needs to be done in advance to prepare.
Once approved, Dr. Dillaha with the ADH said the vaccine will be safe. She said even if it’s only 50 percent effective, it could still be very helpful to people in keeping them out of the hospital and making the virus and their symptoms less severe, much like the flu shot.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, and Dr. Stephen Hahn, who heads the Food and Drug Administration, have stated in interviews with various news organizations that a vaccine may be available for certain groups before clinical trials have been completed, if the data is overwhelmingly positive.
Public health experts agree that agencies at all levels of government should urgently prepare for what will eventually be a vast, complex effort to vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans.