Podcast: The Vaccine Is Here! What Now?
With the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines, hopes abound—but so do questions. With the time between the first inoculation and herd immunity likely to stretch for many months, Americans face a period of “vaccine purgatory,” as staff writer Sarah Zhang has noted.
She joins staff writer James Hamblin and executive producer Katherine Wells on the podcast Social Distance to explain what to expect in the near future and to answer listener questions about the vaccines.
Listen to their conversation here:
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What follows is a transcript of the episode, edited and condensed for clarity:
Katherine Wells: Sarah, not to get to the point too quickly, but ... the vaccine!
Sarah Zhang: Yeah—it’s here! I don’t know about you guys, but I actually got a little emotional watching the first trucks coming out of the factory. I never thought I would feel emotional seeing UPS and FedEx trucks.
It’s just been such a long process. For much of the year, as I was reporting on vaccines, I was really just trying to tamp down people’s expectations. Because all of the scientists I
