Pfizer Vaccine: All You Need To Know About The Vaccine That Is 'Over 90% Effective'
The announcement on Monday reverberated across the world, with stock markets surging to new records and political leaders welcoming the late-stage trial results 每 even as scientists and doctors cautioned many questions remained unanswered and warned any celebration would be premature.
Raising hopes for a major victory in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech have said their experimental vaccine may be 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19.
The announcement on Monday reverberated across the world, with stock markets surging to new records and political leaders welcoming the late-stage trial results 每 even as scientists and doctors cautioned many questions remained unanswered and warned any celebration would be premature.
Reuters
Won't be available soon
First, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, the vaccine developers, need to get regulators to sign off on the shot before it can start shipping vaccines to those considered most in need by the government. Healthcare workers and people living in nursing homes will likely top that list.
But the vaccine's complex and super-cold storage requirements are an obstacle for even the most sophisticated hospitals in the United States and may impact when and where it is available in rural areas or poor countries where resources are tight.
Reuters
Needs minus 70 degrees temperature
The main issue is that the vaccine, which is based on a novel technology that uses synthetic mRNA to activate the immune system against the virus, needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 F) or below.
Trump hints foul due to timing
This even as US President Donald Trump alleged that both the developers did not have the courage to release the results on the effectiveness of the vaccine they have been developing against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) before the presidential election.
Trump said that the United States＊ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should have announced it earlier and indirectly blamed them for withholding the announcement for ※political reasons§.
Reuters
44,000 people involved from 6 countries
The drugmakers＊ trial involves some 44,000 people in six countries, half of whom have been administered with the vaccine, while the other half were given a placebo 每 a treatment designed to have no effect.
Representational Image: Reuters
Monday＊s data is from an interim analysis that was conducted after 94 participants in the continuing trial developed COVID-19. Fewer than nine of them who caught the disease had been given the vaccine.
Senior Writer at Indiatimes. She writes on Lifestyle, fashion, beauty, astrology and health.
