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AdventHealth says the demand for coronavirus vaccines among healthcare workers has been high since they became available to staff in Central Florida on Wednesday. 

Emergency room Dr. Regan Schwartz says he’s only experienced a little soreness at the site of the injection similar to a flu shot since getting the coronavirus vaccine yesterday.

“We are frontline role models of something that’s going to be very effective in treating this pandemic.”

Schwartz says as a frontline worker whose treated COVID-19 patients since March, the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh these minor side effects. 

“We look at the patients that we have sitting in ICUs now and you compare very minimum side effect profile compared to the worst case scenario. And that’s a comparison I make. So, absolutely a vaccine that everyone should take.”

Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Steven Smith says the vaccine is 95 percent effective at preventing the coronavirus.

“The five percent of people that got infected with COVID after the vaccine, they had very mild cases. They didn’t end up in the hospital, they didn’t end up on a ventilator.”

Smith said the vaccine’s profile is similar to the measles vaccine, which is also around 90 plus percent effective.

The hospital system expects to be able to vaccinate the general public in February or March.

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