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One of the scientists behind the first Covid-19 vaccine to approve interim clinical trials has said that the impact of the jab will begin next summer and that normality should return next winter.
Professor Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, said it was “absolutely essential” to have a high vaccination rate before the fall of next year to ensure a return to normal life next winter.
He acknowledged that the next few months will be “tough” and that the promising preliminary results of the vaccine, created in partnership with Pfizer, will not have an impact on the number of infections in the current wave.
Interim results from the jab were found to be over 90% effective, the two companies announced last week, but additional safety and efficacy data continues to be collected.
“If all goes well, we will start delivering the vaccine at the end of this year, starting next year,” Professor Sahin told the BBC’s Andrew Marr program.
“Our goal is to deliver more than 300 million doses of vaccines through April of next year, which could allow us to begin to have an impact.
“The biggest impact will occur until summer, summer will help us anyway because the infection rate will go down in summer.”
He added: “What is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before the fall / winter of next year, so that means that all immunization, vaccination approaches must be accomplished before next fall.
“I’m sure this will happen, because a number of vaccine companies have been asked to increase supply, so we can have a normal winter next year.”
Professor Sahin said Sunday that the “key side effects” seen so far were mild to moderate pain at the injection site for a few days, while some of the participants had mild to moderate fever for a similar period.
It comes amid calls by the Labor Party for emergency legislation to be enacted to “eliminate” conspiracy theories about coronavirus vaccines before any possible launch.
Speaking on Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday show, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said there should be sanctions for social media platforms that allow misinformation to spread.
He said fewer people chose to take the jab due to misinformation online that it was “the last thing we want,” and called on the government to address “some of the dangerous and nonsense anti-vax stuff we’ve seen spreading on the web social. “.
On Saturday, the government said another 462 people had died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
As of 9 a.m. Saturday, another 26,860 laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases had been recorded in the UK, slightly down from 27,301 on Friday.
Elsewhere, Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), urged a long-term strategy when it comes to balancing the economy and the pandemic.
He expressed concern about the switch between incentives, such as Eat Out To Help Out, and closings.
“We need to have a long-term vision and be sensible and realize that we are going to have to have restrictions for some time,” he told the Palestinian Authority news agency.
“Yes, we can lift them when it is safe to do so, which will be mainly when large numbers of people have been vaccinated.
“But switching between encouraging people to mingle socially, which is what you’re doing by encouraging people to go to restaurants and bars, and then closing them immediately, is not a very sensible way to control the epidemic.”
Professor Edmunds, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also said it was “too early to judge” whether December 2 was too early to lift the current lockdown restrictions.
PA media
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