MEMPHIS, Tennessee — The much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine is finally here.
They were shipped out of Pfizer’s headquarters in Michigan Sunday morning and loads landed here in Memphis.
Infectious disease expert Dr. Steve Threlkeld calls it one of the most impressive scientific triumphs of a generation.
“Relief, we’ve been waiting for this for literally months,” said Dr. Threlkeld. “I think it is widely accepted and certainly by me as well as the way out of this.”
The long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine was shipped to FedEx in Memphis on Sunday.
“These vaccine manufacturers and the distributors they’re already our customers we know them we know their business. So the government came to us because they know we have the expertise,” said Richard Smith, the president of FedEx.
The first of many Pfizer freezer-packed vaccines vials traveled to distribution centers like FedEx and UPS following emergency use authorization by the Federal Drug Administration.
“This may be our finest hour and I’m just so deeply proud of the role our team members have played in the fight against this pandemic today, but the role they’re about to play in the upcoming fight to get these vaccines out and end this thing,” said Smith.
The vaccines come as the nation’s pandemic deaths approached a grim milestone of 300,000 and just Saturday Shelby County saw a record-setting 930 new cases.
“Having talked to some of the people who run the trials, I would tell you that I’m convinced that where we sit today I am more likely to be alive and healthy at the end of 2021 if I get this vaccine than if I don’t,” Threlkeld said.
There is some skepticism when it comes to the vaccine, one of the worries being the speed at which it was completed. But Threlkeld said no steps were skipped.
“Despite what some people have worried about it’s one of the most studied and closely monitored vaccines in history.”
The earliest shots will be given to those in nursing homes and to healthcare workers.
“One of the reasons that healthcare workers get it first is not because they’re sicker or even necessarily the most likely to get the infection all the time,” explained Dr. Threlkeld. “But you have to have a healthcare system that is up and running and functioning.”