With the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine set to roll out globally over the next few months, concerns have been expressed over its rapid development. While the reasons for this acceleration are more likely to be chalked up to increased funding and the cutting of red tape, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams took to the news to assure people that the vaccine is safe using a rather weird gaming metaphor.
In an interview with Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy, Adams compared the development of the COVID-19 vaccine to the new Xbox Series X/S. “I want to put it in Christmas-think for people out there,” said Adams. “The Xbox is the new big gift for Christmas and what we did was really use what’s called platform technology. If you get a new Xbox and you want to change your game out you don’t throw the whole Xbox out and buy a new Xbox, you just get a new game.”
"We changed out the cartridge to adapt it to COVID-19 and that is really scientifically what allowed us to get here in record time. These vaccines are safe and I will get one as soon as they tell me I can," stated Adams. Last Friday, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use by the FDA as part of Operation Warp Speed. Earlier today, New York nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the United States to receive a dose of the vaccine.
Adams' unusual metaphor should hopefully prove to be just that, without connections to shortages of the Xbox Series X/S, scalpers taking advantage of the situation, or general technical issues with the consoles. However, the first issue of shortage may prove to be an issue with the US government previously turning down an extra 100 million doses from Pfizer in favor of purchasing from other companies such as Moderna. A planned vaccine from the University of Queensland in Australia has been cancelled following Phase 1 trials producing false positive results to HIV tests.
Though there are vaccine side effects including pain at the injection site, headaches, and tiredness, the vaccine certainly won't be experiencing former Xbox-related issues, including red rings and connectivity inconsistencies. This Xbox comparison is not the only time the Trump administration has dipped its toes into video games and coronavirus. Back in March of this year, the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force response coordinator, Dr. Deborah Birx, stated that the younger generation should take the pandemic situation seriously due to their supposed skills at speedrunning.
While the vaccine is expected to be rolled out rapidly through Operation Warp Speed, the normality of a pre-COVID life is expected to take its time to come back. Cinemas, which have been suffering from the inability to host screenings, are only expected to return to normal operations in the first quarter of 2021 depending on the situation surrounding the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The United Kingdom, which is going back into lockdown and top tier restrictions, has identified a new strain of the virus.
Source: Fox News