Inside: Vaccine news buoys many in CT.

Vaccine news buoys many; while others say they are in no rush for the shot

For Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi, who battled COVID-19 in April, the federal government’s approval of the first coronavirus vaccine for use in the U.S. is “a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s a very bright light.”

Marconi’s comments came Saturday, two days before the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine is to begin arriving — U.S. officials said — in states Monday. The government gave the final go-ahead late Friday to the shots needed to stem an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans.

Now that the FDA has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, will people take it?

“People need to get the vaccine, adults, seniors, don’t wait. Why chance it?” said Marconi.

But debate over the vaccine cropped up across the state Saturday, as the FDA approval, though expected, was so new.

At Elmer’s Diner in Danbury, owner Elmer Palma said his customers were divided over taking the vaccine. “People say it’s great the vaccine is here, but it’s 50-50 on the people would take it and the others who are going to wait,” Palma said.

Palma is one of those who will wait.

“I always try to eat well, take my vitamins and I pray to God for my good health,” Palma said.

“The vaccine is great, but at the same time I want people to learn as much as they can about it, talk to their doctor and make sure they are happy with it,” he said.

But like Marconi. P.J. Prunty, the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce president/CEO, said the approval was “like the light at the end of the tunnel, a medical miracle.”

He said it “from a business perspective, people were holding their breaths.”

“Now we see this as a path forward to get back to the new normal,” Prunty said. “Four or five months ago, people thought a vaccine would be a year away, now we have a time frame. But it is going to be quite the process of rolling it out.”

Parental decisions

Nijija-Ife Waters, a New Haven mother of four, said she had mixed emotions about vaccines.

“Behind every medications, there’s always some side effects,” Waters said.

“We all have different body makeups. What are the ingredients in the vaccines?”

She hopes that people are not forced to take the vaccine

Waters said she and her family follow all the COVID precautions, such as wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing.

“So far, we’ve been safe. But I want to see the evidence of what happens to the people who take the vaccine,” she said. “I don’t want to make an impulsive decision and lose my child or myself.”

“We’ve got to be careful,” she said. “Everything that glitters is not gold.”

In West Haven, parent Bridgette Hoskie, who has a daughter, 16, said the discussion of whether to get her daughter vaccinated has been a topic in the household and they will leave it up to her.

“I’m not going to force her to do this — it’s her decision,” Hoskie said. “But if the schools come back and say you need it for high school or college, that’s going to weigh- in.”

Hoskie said her daughter always received recommended vaccinations by the pediatrician, but not flu shots.

Her daughter is skeptical, as is her dad, an essential worker, said Hoskie, also 1st District City Councilwoman.