The provincial government is confident that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe.

Concerns have been raised in the public eye about possible long-term side effects of the vaccine, and whether it is safe to take given it was developed in under a year.

Premier Andrew Furey says we need to trust Health Canada and the scientific process it took to get us to this point.

Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, echoed Furey’s comments.

She explains that the process the Pfizer product went through is no less rigorous than what other vaccines have gone through; it’s just been structured differently because of the urgency of the situation.

Fitzgerald says there was an “overlapping” of steps to help the process move quicker. However, that doesn’t mean there were any steps missing, and she assures the same standards for any other vaccines were applied here as well.