ABILENE TX – In a year that has come all at once and so quickly its easy to get lost in all the technical information being thrown around but the facts are that the Coronavirus hit us hard and healthcare workers and scientists have worked tirelessly to develop a vaccine. Dr. Annie Drachenberg, Medical Director for the Abilene Taylor County Public Health District sat down with us to talk us through the vaccination process.
“When my children are getting their vaccines and I’m explaining that to them. I just say ‘your immune system is a really powerful thing but the soldiers need to know what they’re looking for’” Said Drachenberg. This of course is a much more simplified way of saying that Vaccines are a message to the body that tell your immune system how to identify a sickness and how to combat against it when the time comes.
Different from the vast majority of vaccines the Coronavirus vaccine is a Messenger RNA vaccine. which means that instead of containing a small dose of the virus it replicates the ‘spike protein’ that encases the Coronavirus. So instead of exposing your immune system to the virus it shows the system what to look out for.
The vaccine is of course not mandatory but the ultimate goal of a vaccine is the eradication of a sickness. Total destruction of a virus can come about most easily through what experts call “herd immunity” which happens when 70 to 80 percent of a given group or population is vaccinated. because as Dr. Drachenberg says “If the virus doesn’t have hosts, it doesn’t stick around”
As of today (12/30) Taylor county is in phase 1 of vaccine distribution. Phase one includes Healthcare workers and those directly exposed to sickness as a part of the job like police and firefighters. Locations who have been given authority to administer the vaccination have also been instructed to continue on to phase 2 including those 18 years and older or 65 years and older with pre-existing conditions, only if all participants of phase one have been offered and doses of the vaccine are still in supply.
According to Dr. Drachenberg the general public should be able to receive the vaccine by summer 2021, but until then experts say that masks and social distancing are still our best tools in fighting infection.
