The coronavirus vaccine should be available to the Irish public by mid-2021, says Martin

A CORONAVIRUS VACCINE should be available to the general public by the middle of next year, and sooner for priority groups.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin told RTÉ’s News at One that “hopefully,” a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 would be available to priority groups in the first half of 2021, and that it would be available to the rest of the population in mid-2021. next year. .

“Look, I still don’t have a precise understanding on this because a lot depends on clinical trials that are done through regulatory authorities in Europe and the FDA in the United States, and then also in distribution, logistics and manufacturing.”

When asked if that estimate was based on the fact that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and other vaccines continue to prove effective and pass regulatory checks, Martin said yes.

“To be fair, Pfizer, for example, has been saying for quite some time that they would be where they are now and that they are aiming to be fair to them. Other companies, like the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, appear to be on target.

“So far, they are more or less in line with what they told us, maybe two or three months ago,” he said.

‘Never in history’

Today, the director of the World Health Organization praised the rapid progress towards a Covid-19 vaccine, but insisted that all countries must reap the benefits.

“A vaccine will be a vital tool to control the pandemic, and we are encouraged by the preliminary results of clinical trials published this week,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the close of the WHO annual meeting.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced this week that their candidate vaccine had shown 92% efficacy in ongoing end-phase trials involving more than 40,000 people, less than a year after the emergence of the vaccine. new coronavirus.

“Never in history has vaccine research progressed so rapidly. We must apply the same urgency and innovation to ensure that all countries benefit from this scientific achievement, ”said Tedros.

The EU Vaccine Order

The European Commission will authorize a contract for up to 300 million doses of the BioNTech and Pfizer vaccine, which its president Ursula von der Leyen described as “the most promising so far”.

It has also placed orders for three other vaccines in development: 300 million doses of the Oxford-AztraZeneca vaccine, with an option to buy an additional 100 million; up to 300 million doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine; and 200 million Janssen Pharmaceutica NV vaccines, with the possibility of purchasing another 200 million.

Once a vaccine is available, von der Leyen said the plan is “to roll it out quickly to all parts of Europe.”

With AFP report