Murphy Comments on COVID-19 Vaccine

President Joe Biden has ordered states to open up COVID-19 vaccinations to all adults as of May 1. He also urged the use of other medical staff to vaccinate Americans, including veterinarians, dentists and paramedics. Timothy F. Murphy, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and senior associate dean for clinical and translational research, says the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is authorized for adults age 16 and up. Murphy does not anticipate any safety issues arising with the vaccine in children. “It's reasonable to be optimistic that they will be safe and effective in children,” he says. No one will be forced to get vaccinated, but experts urge everyone to at least consider it. “We're getting close to 100 million vaccines that have been administered,” Murphy says. “We have learned that it is, indeed, safe.”