Recent announcements about the imminent availability of multiple promising vaccines against COVID-19 brought hope this winter as the virus tightened its grip on the US and around the world. That hope turned to reality for Yale Genetics Clinical Chief Yong-hui Jiang, who received the first does of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine earlier this January. It is an important first step as our community prepares for a vaccine roll-out that experts say must reach a substantial proportion of the population in order to be effective.
Jiang, Professor of Genetics and Chief of Medical Genetics at Yale School of Medicine, is a physician scientist who is active in both basic research and clinical practice. “The COVID-19 vaccine is one of most important tools to prevent infection and stop the pandemic”. Jiang says. He still needs a second shot in four weeks time and goes on to say that for him personally, the vaccine “only caused a very mild ache around the site of injection for 2 days, with no other issues at all”.
Jiang hopes that everyone will get the vaccine, unless advised by their physician not to do so. “The vaccination is the sign of optimism as we enter into 2021. I really hope that daily life will be somewhat back to normal by this summer.” Jiang says.