62% of staffers at Florida’s nursing homes and long-term-care facilities still haven’t been vaccinated. Many by choice. Yet when they catch COVID, it’s residents and families who suffer.
Pfizer says its vaccine works against key mutations on coronavirus variants found in South Africa, UK Jan 28, 2021, 03:16 PM
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Vera Leip, 88, receives a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the John Knox Village Continuing Care Retirement Community on December 16, 2020 in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
In a study, Pfizer and BioNTech s vaccine worked against lab-made coronaviruses similar to variants spreading in the UK and South Africa.
Small differences in how the vaccine performed against the mutations, versus the original virus, were unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in effectiveness.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine hasn t been tested yet against the real-life coronavirus variants.
Marta Lavandier/AP
toggle caption Marta Lavandier/AP
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis watches as nurse Christine Philips (left) administers the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 to Vera Leip, 88, a resident of John Knox Village, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020, in Pompano Beach, Fla. Marta Lavandier/AP
Scarcely a day goes by that Gov. Ron DeSantis isn t holding a news conference somewhere in Florida, talking about his policy of providing the COVID-19 vaccine to seniors first. The state now leads the nation in vaccinating senior citizens. In a state with 4.5 million people 65 and over, that s good news. The bad news is that in Florida, as elsewhere, the demand far exceeds the supply of vaccine, creating a first-come-first-served process that has left some groups out.