- The first vaccine against coronavirus may not be the miracle cure we hoped for, said Drs. Fauci recently.
- A vaccine against coronavirus would have to work 50% of the time only to get a stamp of approval from the FDA.
- The first vaccine against coronavirus could not eliminate COVID-19, but it would still help to control it.
With the coronavirus still growing a dozen states, it’s almost as if we’ve endured a three-month quarantine for free. Due to a variety of factors – from people not wearing masks to states that open prematurely – the rate of new cases of coronavirus today is 2-3 times higher than it was a few months ago. Just a few weeks ago, the United States saw a record-breaking 70,000 new cases of coronavirus over a 24-hour period. As it stands now, the total number of coronavirus cases in the US is slowly reaching 5 million.
It has since become clear that the US cannot move past the coronavirus by simply following basic security guidelines. In turn, we are fast approaching a point where a vaccine for coronavirus may be our only hope.
The good news is that early clinical studies of potential candidates for coronavirus vaccines have yielded stimulating results. Moderna, for example, is of the opinion that enrollment will complete for its Phase 3 trial of a coronavirus vaccine by new moon. The bad news, though, is that a vaccine against coronavirus – at least its first incarnation – may not be the panacea we are led to believe.
At this point, Drs. Anthony Fauci during a recent Q&A session at the Brown University School of Public Health that the first vaccine for coronavirus can only be 60% effective, if not lower. Not one to shun words, Fauci said the chances of a coronavirus vaccine being 98% effective “are not great.”
“You have to think of the vaccine as a tool to get the pandemic to no longer be a pandemic,” Fauci explained, “but to be something that is well controlled.”
That said, Fauci said a coronavirus vaccine that is only 50% effective could still be acceptable and warranted by the FDA to get the green light.
CNBC adds:
Public health officials and scientists expect to know if at least one of the many potential Covid-19 vaccines in development is safe and effective by the end of December or early next year. Drug companies Pfizer and Moderna both began late-stage testing for their potential vaccines each week and both expect to register about 30,000 participants.
There is also a chance that the first vaccine against coronavirus may not even prevent someone from infecting in the first place. After all, it can only happen that an individual experiences some of the more severe symptoms of the coronavirus.
Effectiveness aside, Fauci said earlier this week that the United States – in a best-case scenario – would have tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses ready by early 2021. If that actually happens, Fauci expects life in the United States States will return to normal in the fastest place.
Yoni Heisler, a lifelong Mac user and Apple enthusiast, has been writing about Apple and the tech sector for over 6 years. His writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and most recently, TUAW. While not writing and analyzing recent events with Apple, Yoni enjoyed capturing Improv shows in Chicago, playing football and cultivating new addictions to TV shows, the latest examples being The Walking Dead and Broad City.
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