Health & Fitness
Are You Confident In A COVID-19 Vaccine? Take IL Patch's Survey
Doses of the Pfizer vaccine recently arrived in Chicago. Will you get vaccinated when it's available?
![Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine is more than 94 percent effective. It could be distributed to states later this month.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/73761/20201202/110609/styles/patch_image/public/pfizer-vaccine___02110509559.jpg)
ILLINOIS — For the better part of 10 months, the entire world has been awaiting the emergence of vaccines that would provide the first major pushback against the coronavirus. Now, with that time upon us, the politicization of the virus — as well as a strengthening anti-vaccine movement — means not everyone is clamoring for it.
The first COVID-19 virus vaccines from Pfizer recently arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Pfizer's vaccine was just approved in the United Kingdom and is up for emergency use authorization in the United States next week — Cambridge-based Moderna's vaccine is hoping for the same the following week.
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A spokesperson for DHL told ABC News that the shipping company would be involved in transporting and storing the vaccine at O'Hare. The company operates a 424,000-square-foot life science and health care logistics facility at the airport, which it updated with "new alternative temperature management import and export solutions" for "temperature-sensitive shipments" in 2019, according to the website Logistics Management.
Last week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said "we'll be ready" when it's time to distribute a vaccine, and previously said that at-risk populations, including health care workers, first responders and the elderly, would be offered the first round of vaccines.
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Pritzker Outlines State's Plan For Distributing COVID-19 Vaccine Once Available
In October, Pritzker also said public health officials and researchers in Illinois will independently verify any potential vaccine approved by federal agencies that have been "completely politicized" under President Donald Trump.
"Having said that, I do think that the companies that are trying to develop the vaccines are following the normal course of trials … to do the right thing," Pritzker said. You can see Illinois' vaccination plan here.
Patch wants to know: How do you feel about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines? Do you plan on taking one as soon as possible? Has the politicization of the vaccine and virus impacted your feelings on it?
The survey will close later this week, and then we'll post results. The survey is not meant to be a scientific poll, with random sampling and margins of error, but is meant only to gauge the sentiments of our readers in an informal way.
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