US surgeon general says he will receive coronavirus vaccine when told it is safe

US Surgeon General Dr Jerome Adams has vowed he will get the first coronavirus vaccine approved for emergency use when told it is safe.

During an interview on Good Morning America on Monday, Adams was asked about a recent Gallup poll, which found that more than 40% of people did not want to be vaccinated against the virus that has killed more than 256,000 Americans.

He said he traveled across the country to reassure the public that researchers did not have secure corners when developing the jab.

‘[T]The most reassuring thing I can tell you America is when [the US Food and Drug Administration] tells me that I can get the vaccine, I will get it because I know it is the best way to protect myself and my family and my community, ”he said.

It comes as AstraZeneca has become the latest pharmaceutical company to report positive results from early data from its vaccine trial, raising hopes that several inoculations could be approved soon.

Last week, US companies Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc each reported positive preliminary results from late-stage trials showing their vaccines to be around 95% effective.

And on Monday, a coronavirus vaccine developed by the University of Oxford in the UK and manufactured by AstraZeneca was found to be 90% effective.

Both Pfizer and Moderna injections use a new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA).

It works by causing the body to produce some of the viral proteins, which the immune system then recognizes and builds a defensive response against.

Host Celia Vega asked a user a question about how the general population can ensure that there will be little or no side effects with mRNA injections.

“Normal studies only have about 5,000 people before a vaccine is approved,” Adams said.

“These studies have 30 to 60 thousand. These vaccines, when given to the American public, will have more data than any vaccine developed in history.

Adams said it would be frustrating for a vaccine with 95% effectiveness to be approved by the FDA, but few people take it.

Another Twitter user asked why two doses were needed

“For some of them, it takes multiple doses to get you to where you need to be,” he said.

He added that Johnson & Johnson is currently working on a single-dose vaccine, which could increase the percentage of people wanting to receive the vaccine.

It comes as Oxford-AstraZeneca announced on Monday that its coronavirus vaccine is up to 90% effective.

Unlike the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, the AstraZeneca vaccine should not be stored at freezing temperatures, which will facilitate distribution.

“I think these are really exciting results,” said Dr. Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the trial.

“Because the vaccine can be stored at refrigerator temperature, it can be distributed around the world using the normal immunization distribution system. And so our goal … to make sure we have a vaccine available everywhere, I think we’ve been successful in doing that.

In addition, the British vaccine is cheaper.

AstraZeneca, which has pledged not to turn a profit in one shot, set a price around $ 2.50 a dose.

Pfizer’s vaccine has about $ 19.50 per shot while Moderna will charge governments between $ 25 and $ 37 per shot depending on the number of orders.

All three plans must be approved by the FDA before they can be widely released.

“I’m just so glad we have three vaccines now, because when you’re trying to vaccinate the entire planet, we want to have as many different tools in our arsenal as possible,” Adams said.