Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, CEO of the famous Mayo Clinic, urges Americans to get the first Covid-19 vaccine available to them.
“My message is very simple: don’t wait for a certain vaccine,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday. “Get the first vaccine offered, because their benefits far outweigh any potential risks.”
To date, there are two coronavirus vaccines approved in the US for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration – one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech and the other by Moderna. The Moderna vaccine, after receiving limited authorization on Friday, is launched this week. The first Americans outside of clinical trials began receiving photos of the Pfizer vaccine last week.
Currently, health workers and residents of long-term care institutions are given priority in the initial round of vaccinations. However, as the number of available doses increases, a wider range of people will become eligible for immunization. On Sunday, a panel from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that “essential front-line workers” and people aged 75 and over be next in line.
Dr. Diana Rodriguez receives the Covid-19 vaccine with the first batch of Moderna vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut, on December 21, 2020.
Joseph Precious | AFP | Getty Images
Vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both of which are two photographs, have shown strong efficacy in clinical trials. Pfizer reported 95% efficacy in its large-scale study, while the Moderna vaccine was more than 94% effective in preventing Covid-19.
“Having a vaccine that is 95% effective, like the two vaccines we currently have, is a medical miracle,” said Farrugia, who has run the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota since January 2019.
Other vaccines may receive FDA approval next year, which could help expand the group of Americans who could receive the vaccines. Johnson & Johnson expects to receive data from its late-stage vaccine study early next year and apply to the FDA for emergency use in February.
The launch of coronavirus vaccines comes at a critical time in the global pandemic. As of Monday, the seven-day national average of new infections was 215,429, the sixth-highest ever, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The record point came last week. The most recent seven-day average of new daily deaths in the United States was 2,655, the lowest rate to date.
“It is essential that people be educated and then vaccinated. It is the only way we will get out of this pandemic,” Farrugia said.