Safer Vaccines

You Can't Hurry Love

You can't hurry love
No, you'll just have to wait
Just trust in a good time
No matter how long it takes

 We all want a COVID-19 vaccine right away, but like love we'll just have to wait.

During the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic, counties in Northern Europe used Pandemerix as a vaccine.  It was never  approved for use in the United States.  It was later found that an increase in narcolepsy was a side effect of the vaccine.  Because of this side effect, Pandemerix is no longer used or available. 

 
But the fact that there is a side effect could only be determined with time.  That is the reason that it was not approved in the United States, because the required testing time had not yet elapsed.  We will have enough trouble making people who are fearful of the side effects of all vaccines to take a corona virus vaccine.  If we rush and there are side effects we will only make it harder.

Rushing a vaccine with side effects can be just as bad as not having a vaccine at all.