San Joaquin county holds its first clinic offering new COVID vaccine
STOCKTON -- San Joaquin County held its first Novavax vaccine clinic in Stockton today.
"This vaccine had been studied for some time, and I think we were all looking for different technology," said Dr. Maggie Park.
Dr. Park is the Health Officer for San Joaquin County, which just acquired the new Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.
"I think a lot of people were waiting for that option to have traditional older technology, maybe something more tried and true," said Dr. Park.
It comes after hesitation to mRNA vaccines. Although it was not new technology, it was the first time it was seen in vaccines.
The Novavax vaccine uses a protein-based approach which is already used in other vaccines.
"With what the tools we have, the way we keep updating them, the way we keep building better treatments, I am confident that we're going be able to stay ahead of this virus," said Dr. Ashish Jha, Harvard Medical School Professor.
"We are assuming the Novavax is fairly effective. In its clinical trial, it did very well," said Dr. Park.
Dr. Park says in its clinical trial, that Novavax had a 90% efficacy rate. But the question remains how will it do against more recent strains like the Omicron variant?
Those studies are underway right now.