Share your views
Submit letters to the editor via email to [email protected]. Please include your name and town of residence for publication. Please include phone number and email address for confirmation. Letters should be no more than 250 words.
Despite vaccine rollout, we must not let our guard down
As a physician, scientist, infectious-disease specialist and member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), I draw hope from this month’s COVID-19 vaccine developments — and we also must double down on mitigation measures that will keep us safe until sufficient doses are administered to bring the pandemic under control.
While it is true that the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have landed in Chicago and frontline health workers are receiving it, we must not make the mistake of letting our guard down. We need to protect our most at-risk citizens first with the initial limited supply of doses, and there is no easy estimate about when all of us will be vaccinated.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are safe and effective for use in adults. I have publicly stated that we should collect, analyze and review more safety and efficacy data on clinical trial participants under 18 years of age. Having said this, my confidence in the vaccines is such that, if my priority-risk group were called in to receive a dose, I would be first in line to do so.
Vaccinations will be one of the mechanisms through which we will bring this global health crisis to an end. Until that time comes, we must exercise common sense and remain vigilant in our daily lives. Additional data and science will lead us to a better place if we continue to grant them our patience.
Archana Chatterjee, MD, PhD
Dean, Chicago Medical School
Vice president for medical affairs
More Top Picks Best Toasters
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science