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This morning in the United Kingdom began to administer the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, authorized by the government for use in the general public just a week ago. Margaret Keenan, a 90-year-old woman living in Coventry, received a dose of the vaccine at 6:31 a.m. M. (7:31 a. M. in Italy) and became the first person in the world to be vaccinated outside of clinical trials with Pfizer’s solution. BioNTech.
In the coming weeks, 800 thousand doses will be administered, giving priority to health personnel and the elderly and at risk. The UK government claims that up to 4 million people could be vaccinated by the end of the year, but it is not yet clear whether it will be able to get enough vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, which is expected to receive emergency clearance shortly. also distribute them in the United States, and then in the European Union.
Keenan said she was honored to have received the vaccine first and within days of her 91st birthday: “It’s the best early bird gift I could wish for because it means I can finally start thinking about spending time with my family and friends in the new one. year, after being alone for almost a year.
40 million
The British government has so far reserved 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, enough to vaccinate 20 million people: each individual must receive two doses three weeks apart. The first to receive the coronavirus vaccine will be members of the health staff and those over 80 years of age. Then it will proceed with individuals older than 75 years, expanding later to those older than 70 or with other health problems. In the following phases, the 65-year-old population will be vaccinated, then the 16 to 64-year-old population with health problems, and then again to climb to 50.
The progressive availability of a larger number of doses should allow the groups to be vaccinated to be expanded even further, but much will depend on when they are given.
Critics
Last week, UK health authorities received some criticism for approving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine so quickly, given that the two largest pharmaceutical authorities in the West (FDA in the US and EMA in the European Union) they were still working to analyze the data provided by the two pharmaceutical companies. In the US, a first assessment is expected to be released later this week, while the EMA will review the case on December 12. Verification processes are important to analyze the data provided by vaccine manufacturers, checking for errors in the implementation of clinical trials or other unforeseen events.
MRNA
The first vaccine approved in the UK is based on messenger RNA (mRNA), the molecule that encodes and carries the instructions contained in DNA to make proteins. Vaccines based on this system use synthetic forms of mRNA, made in the laboratory, that contain instructions for making certain specific coronavirus proteins. In this way, the immune system learns to recognize and fight them, but without the risks that it would run in the case of a real coronavirus infection. The immune system can use the knowledge gained to counter these proteins to counter any actual infection.
The mRNA-based technique allows doses to be produced more quickly and simplifies some steps than traditional methods, but it is fairly recent and so far no mRNA-based vaccine has been commercialized or used on a large scale. Therefore, there are still some doubts about the potential and reliability of the system, although the news circulating in recent weeks about the experimental vaccines that use it are quite encouraging.
Competition
Pfizer-BioNTech are not alone in developing an mRNA-based vaccine. For example, even the American biotech company Moderna did, which reported that it had found its vaccine to be 94.1 percent effective. The estimate is based on an analysis of data collected during phase 3 clinical trials. Moderna also started emergency clearance requests this week.
Unlike other vaccines, those from Pfizer-BioNTech should be stored at around -70 ° C, and this could be a problem for distribution. Securing the cold chain will be one of the main challenges for the logistics of the new vaccine, although Pfizer has announced that it has developed containers with insulating material and dry ice, which should guarantee the maintenance of -70 ° C for several days.
Moderna’s vaccine must be kept at low temperatures, but the company recently reported that its solution is kept at -20 ° C and that, once thawed, it remains stable for thirty days if stored between 2 and 8 ° C. ° C. These temperatures of the refrigerator, and not of very powerful freezers, should pose less difficulties for the transport and storage of the vaccine in pharmacies and hospitals, already equipped with refrigerators to store other types of vaccines.
Precautions
It is good to remember that to date we do not know how long the protection offered by these vaccines lasts, or how effective it really is outside of clinical trials. Vaccines are often less effective in the community than trials. It is also unclear how long immunization lasts, because the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been around for too short a time to be accurately estimated.
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