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SALT LAKE CITY – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration still needs to formally sign off on it, but Pfizer's vaccine already has the approval of one Utah girl who recently received her second dose in the vaccine trial for teens.
"The actual vaccine didn't hurt at all. She said it was the best vaccine she's ever had," said Jennifer Eagar, whose daughter, 17, received both doses earlier this month.
In a blind study where half of the participants get a placebo and the other half get the real vaccine, Eagar doesn't know which one her daughter got. But during her last visit, she said the doctor told them her side effects within 24 hours of each dose suggest it was the real thing.
"The first fever she got it lasted less than 24 hours. The second one about the same. She did have a headache too, for a few days, but nothing horrible," Eagar said.
Eagar's younger daughter has had the virus and "it was not fun." She signed up her older daughter to participate in the Pfizer vaccine trial the first chance she got, saying "we have a lot of high-risk people in our family so we want to get that vaccine out as soon as possible."
"It's great news. It's a great achievement. And it's a hopefully a good way out of this pandemic that we're all dealing with," said Brian Poole, an associate professor of molecular and microbiology at Brigham Young University.
Poole has been following the vaccine studies and trials closely and recently received his first dose in the AstraZeneca vaccine trial.
"I felt a little muscle soreness and felt crappy for about half the day," he said after receiving the dose. "That's normal. That's the immune system doing its job and actually activating to fight the virus. That's how you can know that it's working."
The effectiveness of the vaccines so far is reassuring for Poole. But he is concerned with how people may react to the news.
"It would really be a tragedy if people relaxed their guard and lots of people died during this time period when the end is right around the corner," he said. "I would urge a little bit of patience and increased diligence in doing the things that will help stop the pandemic before the vaccine becomes available."
State leaders said in a press conference Thursday that the next few weeks could get ugly in Utah, adding that the expected rollout of the vaccine offers a way out.
"We'll be right in line as soon as we're able to get it," Eagar said.
