JACKSONVILLE, FLA. — On Thursday, the FDA could give the green light for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Maggie FitzRoy said she never had the courage to get a flu vaccine but felt this trial could be the one thing she could do to help.
”I was really scared but this I thought I’ve got to help,” said FitzRoy, a participant in Pfizer’s vaccine trial.
In August, the 67-year-old decided to take a leap of faith and enroll in the trial.
FitzRoy said, “When I volunteered we had no clue it was going to do anything at all and I was just willing to do it because I knew it wasn’t the real virus.”
Local infectious disease specialist Dr. Mohammad Reza said the Pfizer vaccine is called an mRNA vaccination.
Dr. Reza said, “It’s a little piece of a messenger RNA, which is code to make that antibody to the spiked protein to COVID-19, so if anything it as safe if not safer than the flu vaccination.”
FitzRoy said she didn’t feel the first shot, just soreness on her arm the next day.
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”I thought well that’s good I probably have the real thing and so the second shot three weeks later I had 100.5 wasn’t 105 but it was 100.5 fever.”
The next day, FitzRoy said everything lifted and she felt great.
And while doctors didn’t specifically tell patients if they received the vaccine or the placebo, FitzRoy feels very confident this vaccine works.
”I was definitely exposed to someone who is contagious and I didn’t get the slightest bit sick I reported it to the Pfizer people and they were happy to hear it,” explains FitzRoy.
That’s why she’s encouraging others to get it when it’s approved and available to the public.
”I just want us all to be able to get back to normal, a new normal or a better normal.”
Cox Media Group
