Doctor talks about the vaccine

I spoke with dr. mike czarnecki, a pulmonary specialist with the lung docs here in chattanooga who was one of the thousands of medical workers who received the vaccine over the weekend.

He says that his experience getting the vaccine went well he feels great, and strongly urges chattanoogans to consider getting the vaccine once it becomes widely available.

That's chattanooga pulmonary specialist mike czarnecki receiving his long-awaited covid-19 vaccine just this weekend.

Aside from running his regular practice, czarnecki also runs a clinic in hixson to treat the so-called "covid-19 long haulers" patients who are still struggling with their covid symptoms months later.

When asked about his experience getting the pfizer vaccine, he said that it went well.

He also adds that the vaccine is anything but rushed.

The technology for mrna vaccines being developed by pfizer and moderna have been in the works for years.

The only thing missing was the funding.

"this technology's been worked on over the last ten to fifteen years and the last ten to twelve years some scientific advances were made to allow the mrna to be replicated and manufactured easier.

And really, the only thing that has allowed this to come so quickly is the an influx of money and also a worldwide global deadly pandemic."

Dr. czarnecki says that while the data isn't yet available to show how long haul covid-19 patients would be impacted by the pfizer or moderna vaccines, he recommends that everyone get vaccinated long hauler or not.

"there's a lot of naysayers out there and people who are against the vaccines and that's a personal choice, that's fine.

It's just, i want people to understand that this sars-cov2 virus is not going to go away.

The only thing that's going to help is a vaccination program.

I have no good therapies to treat you if you're in the hospital and can't breathe.

We support you and allow your body to recover on it's own - and some people recover and some people don't."

And the tennessee department of health says that more than 200,000 tennesseans will be vaccinated by the end of the year as more doses of the vaccine continue to come in.

Reporting live in chattanooga,