Story by Jake Fink, MTN Reporter
Dec. 17th, 2020
MURFREESBORO, TN - A COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer is on its way to hospitals in Middle Tennessee. Months of suffering will eventually come to an end. Although we still don’t know when the vaccine will become available, shipments safely made it to FedEx’s Memphis hub on Sunday, according to the Tennessee Health Department. About 150 hospitals in Tennessee are first in line to receive access to the highly desired vaccine, according to the Tennessee Health Department. In fact, this past Monday, a nurse in New York became the first person in America to take the vaccine, according to the New York Times. The enthusiasm emanating from this news may be just what the doctor ordered as cases around the country continue to rise.
With the holidays just around the corner, it’s important to stay safe as everybody buys
last-minute Christmas presents. While everyone hopes a new calendar year brings new life,
COVID-19 plans to stick around for just a little bit longer. The much-feared second wave of
Coronavirus is well underway tallying a record 10,461 new cases in Tennessee on December 13, according to the CDC. Rutherford County continues to be a hot spot for the virus with over 22,000 total cases since March, according to the Tennessee Health Department. World
Population Review lists the population of Rutherford County at 341,316. That being said,
Rutherford County holds a 2.5% larger infection rate than big city Davidson County. The rate of death between Rutherford and Davidson County patients with COVID-19 remains roughly the same.
A total of over 443,000 people have had the Coronavirus in Tennessee with more than 5,400 of those people not making it, according to the CDC. Best case scenario, The vaccine for the virus won’t be available to the general public until late spring, according to the US Health Department. Pfizer has worked incredibly hard over the past several months to generate a vaccine that can help fight this virus in order to slowly bring the world back to a sense of normalcy. Sooner or later the vaccine will be available to everybody, but until then it’s important to stay safe.