Thread by @businessinsider

The largest vaccination campaign in the history of the US has begun.

The first person to be publicly vaccinated against the #coronavirus in the US was an ICU nurse from Queens, New York.

This is what you need to know. 👇
businessinsider.com/first-covid-19…

💉 Today all 50 US states are slated to receive their first doses of Pfizer’s #COVID19 vaccine.
businessinsider.com/coronavirus-va…

💉 On Sunday, workers at Pfizer's Michigan warehouse started packaging and loading the vaccines onto trucks.

These photos show what the process was like:
businessinsider.com/photos-covid-1…

💉 How is the vaccine being transported?

Pfizer's vaccine must be transported on dry ice at -94 degrees Fahrenheit to remain effective, so it's being shipped in retrofitted tuna freezers.
businessinsider.com/covid-19-vacci…

💉 Who will get the shot first?

States will determine how to prioritize the initial vaccine doses.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel has recommended that frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents be prioritized.
businessinsider.com/when-can-i-get…

💉 Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine should be safe for most Americans, but here are five groups that may want to wait for more data on how the vaccine affects people like them:
businessinsider.com/pfizer-coronav…

💉 Allergies

Pfizer’s vaccine appears to be safe for people with food or environmental allergies, the FDA said on Saturday.

Read more:
businessinsider.com/fda-people-all…

💉 President Trump said he was halting his own administration's plan to make White House staff among the first people in the country to get a coronavirus vaccine.

He tweeted on Sunday that staff should get the vaccine "somewhat later," including himself.
businessinsider.com/trump-white-ho…

💉 The US could immunize 20 million people by the end of 2020, but social distancing and mask wearing will need to continue well into 2021.
businessinsider.com/what-pfizer-va…

💉 How does the vaccine work?
Pfizer’s shot uses a new kind of immunization technology called mRNA, or messenger RNA.

This is how RNA vaccines train the body to fight the coronavirus. 👇
bit.ly/2IL1fDN

💉 How was the vaccine developed?

The shot is an unprecedented scientific accomplishment: Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine was created and tested in record time.

Here’s how they did it:
businessinsider.com/insider-pfizer…

💉 BioNTech co-founder Ugur Sahin designed the vaccine in just a few hours in mid-January, according to The Journal, a podcast from Gimlet and The Wall Street Journal.

The reason it could be designed so quickly comes down its use of mRNA technology.
businessinsider.com/pfizer-biontec…

💉 Are other vaccines in the works?

Moderna and AstraZeneca have also released positive results from their late-stage trials.

An FDA advisory committee will decide whether to recommend Moderna's vaccine on December 17.
businessinsider.com/coronavirus-va…

💉 Want to learn more about Moderna’s vaccine? Read this thread:

https://twitter.com/businessinsider/status/1330171083895541761

The end remains in the distant future.

Infections, hospitalizations, and deaths have all surged over the past two months, routinely setting new record highs.
businessinsider.com/cdc-director-w…

For more reporting like this 👇 and more visit Business Insider.

https://twitter.com/AndrewE_Dunn/status/1337819423609065475