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By my optimistic estimates, it may take place in the first quarter of 2021, but we still can’t say more exact than that.
– said the head of the Stockholm-based EU agency in an interview with AFP. An EU source told the French news agency that The use of a “vaccine” could be authorized in the EU “in early 2021”.
Pfizer in the US and BioNTech in Germany announced Monday that the effectiveness of their vaccine against SARS-Cov-2, which causes Covid-19 disease, exceeds 90 percent based on preliminary experimental results.
“That is promising, of course,” Ammon said, emphasizing that it is “a press release for now, not a (scientific) peer review, so we will see what the final verdict is.”
Availability of a vaccine within the EU requires approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The European Commission said on Wednesday it would approve a contract that would allow it to buy up to 300 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTecht.
At least 13 million coronavirus infections and 311,000 deaths have been recorded in Europe, and many countries have been affected by the second wave of the epidemic. However, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kiriakidis said on Wednesday that the vaccine alone would not end the pandemic immediately. “Even if a safe and effective vaccine is available … austerity measures will still be needed until we can reach a significant part of the population,” he stressed.
Cover image: Getty Images
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