CORONAVIRUS: Great day for Science & Humanity as first COVID Vaccine 90% Effective in trials

CORONAVIRUS: Great day for Science & Humanity as first COVID Vaccine 90% Effective in trials
By Iain Fraser - Editor
www.GEOPoliticalMatters.com

Hailed by the developers as a "Great day for Science & Humanity" - there isnt a single person in the World who won´t directly or indirectly benefit from the news that Pfizer and its development partner BioNTech have produced the first effective coronavirus vaccine, that preliminary analysis show can protect more than 90% of people from getting the doomsday virus.

The vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised. On the strength of the Phase 3 trial results Pfizer and he companies plan to apply for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month.

No vaccine has gone from the drawing board to being proven highly effective in such a short period of time.

Obviously there is a mountian to climb for the developers but the announcement has been warmly received by the Healthcare community, with scientists describing themselves smiling from "ear to ear" and some suggesting life could be back to normal as early as next Spring.

Responding to the announcement the announcement that the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine trial was found to be 90 percent effective, British Medical Association (BMA) public health medicine committee co-chairs Dr Penelope Toff and Dr Richard Jarvis said:

“Having a reliable vaccine is by the far the most effective way of tackling the virus and will ensure that we can protect the most vulnerable as well as alleviating pressure on the health service and easing economic and societal restrictions.

“There are of course still many important factors to understand before this can be safely distributed among the public, especially to those in the most vulnerable groups. We look forward to seeing more data on the safety and efficacy, including review by the JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) and MHRA (Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency)

“While this is hopeful news, we must not forget that the reality on the ground now is that NHS staff are being pushed to their limits. It remains absolutely crucial that we all continue to follow the current guidance, particularly on not mixing with other households and that we all keep to the practices we know work best for infection control.”

Meanwhile the news is not so good for the Chinese Sinovac trial which have been halted in Brazil w.i.e after health authorities reported a "severe adverse" incident according to Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, who were not available for comment when I attempted to contact them yesterday.

The Sinovac vaccine is one of several in final-stage testing globally but China has already been using it to immunise thousands of people at home in an emergency use programme.

Brazil has been one of the countries worst affected by coronavirus, recording more than 5.6m confirmed cases - the third highest tally in the world after the US and India - and nearly 163,000 deaths so far, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University.

Image Credit: Gerd Altmann