Officials at a Bridgeport health care clinic expect to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in just under a month, they say.

Officials at Optimus Health care on E. Main Street have been divided between two main priorities-- continuing COVID-19 testing and gearing up for the vaccine.

Executive director Ludwig Spinelli says he expects the first Moderna vaccine doses for COVID-19 to arrive in about two weeks.

He says his front-line staff will get the first available doses, with members of the city's most vulnerable population being next in line.

Dr. Alex Pose, a French doctor who's studied the science behind the Moderna vaccine, and who is now working at Optimus, says she is "blown away" by the impressive way experts have been working together to make a vaccine available as quickly as they have.

"We need to beat it. We will beat it. The science of the vaccine is absolutely incredible. For the medical world, the science did in two months what it's usually able to do in 10 years," Pose says.

Spinelli says Optimus will be working with the city of Bridgeport and the National Guard to get word out to the public about the practical side of the vaccination program.

​"The benefits are by far outweighing the risk," Pose said. "And just like we eradicated smallpox in 1976, we might be able to eradicate COVID for the long-term."

But now, Spinelli says, the next phase is getting ready for the vaccine.

"I think it brings hope and I think that's the most important thing so we can get back to normal, get the economy going. And that's going to affect everybody's life -- getting the kids back in school," he said.

According to Dr. Pose, studies are showing that the side effects of the vaccine are the same as ones with the flu shots.

Spinelli says he's happy that a vaccine is finally here.

"It's exciting to see that hopefully we're going to be near the end of this pandemic."