With several officials at the national level touting a potential vaccine by the end of the year or even in the next couple of months, local public health officials say they are hopeful if a vaccine does come out for the COVID-19 virus, it is safe.
Melissa Rome, the emergency preparedness and planning coordinator for the Vermilion County Health Department, says medical labs are not supposed to rush through vaccination trials in order to quickly approve them. She says the trials are supposed to take long periods of time in order to prevent potential side effects such as neuromuscular conditions.
“That’s why you do the trials, is you make sure that you are going through all of the processes to make sure it is safe and effective, and you are not supposed to hurry through it,” Rome explained.
Rome also pointed out that COVID-19 is unlike any viruses many people in the United States have seen before. She says H1N1 was similar to the regular flu, meaning it was easier to develop a vaccine, but some worldwide outbreaks never actually had vaccines.
“A new novel coronavirus–such as SARS or MERS–we were never able to develop a vaccine, and maybe we would have eventually, but those fizzled out before we needed them,” she added.
Both Rome and Health Department Administrator Doug Toole say they are worried about potential coronavirus outbreaks, since the number of active cases has skyrocketed to near 60 locally within the past week.
