Britain swiftly passed the United States and Europe on Wednesday when its regulator cleared the candidate Pfizer vaccine for emergency use. The vaccine will be launched early next week in Britain. The approval in record time has raised some suspicions and curiosities.
Here is everything you need to know:
1. The vaccine is approximately 95 percent effective in preventing Covid-19.
2. Starting in January, between 60 and 70 million doses of the vaccine could be available per month.
3. The World Health Organization is reviewing the vaccine for possible inclusion in the list for emergency use.
4. The European Union criticized Britain’s swift approval of Pfizer. Pfizer is an American company and BioNTech is a German company. Neither the United States nor Germany has yet approved the vaccine.
5. Vaccine manufacturers, however, have ensured that no corners have been cut and that the vaccine injection has not been developed in a short period of time. They are the cumulative results since the SARS and MERS outbreaks.
6. The vaccine, as stated, needs a temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius for long-term storage.
7. However, it can be stored under normal refrigeration for a shorter period of time.
8. India did not conduct any trials of the Pfizer vaccine. Speaking about the vaccine, senior officials said earlier that India may not need to acquire Pfizer. Even if it did, it wouldn’t happen right away.
9. One report said that Indian travel agents are receiving inquiries about travel to the UK as several Indians want to benefit from the mass vaccination campaign.
10. It may not be that easy for tourists to India to get vaccinated. Boris Johnson, who could get the vaccine on television to show that it is safe, warned people in the UK that there are several logistical challenges. He has urged the people of the UK not to be carried away by excessive optimism.
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