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Before Christmas, Kari Stefansson, director of Iceland-based deCode Genetics, and Thorolfur Gudnason, the country’s chief epidemiologist, contacted Pfizer executives. His offer was as follows: if Iceland could receive 500,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech SE as a matter of urgency, it could vaccinate around 70% by the end of March. its population, providing a basis for a non-simulated study of whether it is possible to achieve herd immunity in this way.
However, according to these men, their offer was rejected. With new infections declining, Pfizer has concluded that there are simply too few cases in Iceland to warrant such an investigation.
“How can you show that a vaccine protects against the virus if there are simply no infections,” Stefansson said in an interview.
More than 14,500 people, or about 4 percent. Icelandic populations have already received a dose or two of Pfizer or vaccines developed by Moderna Inc. or AstraZeneca Plc. The vaccination was carried out with Iceland’s participation in a pan-European agreement that allows countries to receive doses based on their population.
If Pfizer had accepted Iceland’s offer, Iceland would have been at the top of the list.
“Having received the vaccine earlier, we would have been able to vaccinate the population more quickly, in a more structured way, and track the consequences and results of the vaccine,” said Th. Goodnason. “I think only a few countries have an infrastructure as good as Iceland to do such a study.”
He expects vaccine delivery to Iceland to accelerate in the second and third decade of 2021. quarter, when agreements with new producers will come into effect.
Kari Stefansson
Meanwhile, Pfizer seems to leave the door open a bit: “Several efficiency studies are being carried out in different countries, including Iceland. As the debate is still ongoing, we cannot comment further at this time. “
With a single large port, a limited population, and a nationalized healthcare system, Icelanders were particularly well prepared to slow the spread of Covid-19. Although these circumstances are generally considered an advantage, they have limited the scope of a larger infection study.
“You can thank Thorolfur for that,” Stefansson said, referring to the chief epidemiologist. “He has created a system for which we now have so few cases.”
Iceland has never announced such extreme quarantine measures as other countries, including the US and the UK.
However, he quickly introduced social isolation measures and masks, banned large gatherings, and closed all schools except elementary schools.
Now that travel to and from Iceland is strictly controlled, Icelanders can enjoy more freedoms at home than other European nations. The country has managed to limit the spread of the British strain to 60 cases, mainly along the border.
DeCode, the world’s leading population gene research company, was launched in 2012. It was acquired by California pharmaceutical manufacturer Amgen Inc., in close collaboration with the Icelandic government in response to the pandemic.
Even before the emergence of more contagious strains of the virus, deCode screened all cases of the disease in Iceland, allowing for its spread and mutations to be controlled with particular precision.
DeCode has also collected a wealth of data on Icelandic genomes, which is expected to help answer questions about the role of genetics in determining why different people are affected differently by the disease.
“The concept of herd immunity had never been studied before,” Stefansson said before Pfizer decided to leave. “Right now, it’s just a theory, so it would be an opportunity to delve into this concept.”
The experiment I had with Th. Gudnason suggested that Pfizer would be, in many ways, “the most impressive vaccine campaign imaginable,” he said before announcing the drug manufacturer’s decision.
It would have taken a year or more to get definitive answers to all the questions posed, Stefansson said.
“I’m talking about herd immunity, whether certain mutations in the virus will be able to prevent the vaccine, how quickly the antibodies form in the blood after vaccination and how quickly they start to decline,” he said.
Iceland is not the only country that has spoken to Pfizer about speeding up vaccine delivery to assess their effectiveness. In January, the drugmaker agreed with Israel to speed up delivery of the vaccine, as the country sought to immunize all citizens over the age of 16 by the end of March.
In return, the company will receive detailed information about the vaccination program.
More than 400,000 Israelis have already received both doses of the vaccine and the country reported that only 63 people, or 0.014 percent, became infected with the virus shortly after vaccination.
Those who received just one dose were also significantly less likely to become infected with the virus, health officials said.
More research will be needed, but if the results do not change, the vaccine’s effectiveness can be expected to be even greater than the 95% promised by the drug’s manufacturer.
Meanwhile, Iceland has already served as a kind of living laboratory. The country has started rapid preparations for a large-scale research program in collaboration with the national health authorities and deCode.
Study conducted by geneticists from deCode, the Icelandic Health Directorate and the National University Hospital, April 14. published in the New England Journal of Medicine, provided preliminary information on the virus, including the high prevalence of asymptomatic cases and the fact that children appear more resistant to the disease.
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