What are reasonable timelines to get these vaccines mass produced and distributed? Sign me up. I want to get this shit behind us
I see this sentiment a lot, and I think it demonstrates that there is a clear misunderstanding about the vaccination. it is not a cure for this disease. First, remember that we have vaccinated our way out of exactly 1 disease, ever--Smallpox. Getting rid of a disease is juuuust shy of impossible.
Second, we have no idea how long immunity lasts. Naturally-gained (aka getting sick) immunity seems to last not long at all, as multiple people have had the disease twice in the less-than-a-year it has even existed. At least one died from a second infection, I recall reading. So if this vaccination is similar, we'd need to be vaccinating a vast majority of the population every ~6 months. There is simply no way to do that.
Distribution is also complicated. The Pfizer vax has to be stored at something like -95*. Getting it to small rural communities and distributing it will be no small feat. And that's after production has ramped up enough that we even have enough of it to do so.
Then there will be the people who refuse to get it. Because this was so politicized, there seems to be even more skepticism and fear about this than just the normal anti-vax crap. If people won't wear a mask, are they going to get jabbed with a needle filled with a substance for which we have no long term data on effects? And who is going to pay for them to get it? Then of course there are the people whose health means they can't get the vaccination, even if they want it.
An effective vaccine is an incredibly development. But it doesn't mean we will be done with this any time soon. The biggest concern for me is how long the immunity lasts, and secondarily I worry about mutations in the virus that mean a new vaccination needs to be made and distributed every year, much like the flu.
So I don't think this shit will be completely behind us any time soon, if at all.