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Many shrugged and looked at the outlines of the beginning of the end of the pandemic this week.
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Biontech say their vaccine candidate could be 90 percent effective in breaking down the coronavirus.
The vaccine is completely new of its kind and nothing similar has ever been used in humans before, except in medical tests.
Soon approved for use
Vaccine development is now in the final testing phase. More than 40,000 volunteers were vaccinated in the trials.
The outgoing president of the United States, Donald Trump, warns that the vaccine will be approved soon and that then they will begin mass vaccination in all states except New York.
In this country, we have to wait a little longer, but the vaccine appears to be approved faster than previously thought.
– It appears to be a good vaccine, but now medical authorities will examine the findings carefully. We first imagine that the approval would take place at the end of January / February, but with the good data we have now, we anticipate that we can do it before that, says the medical director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency Steinar Madsen to NRK.
More to choose from
Although Pfizer is now leading the race among the candidate vaccines Norway has access to through the EU, Madsen says it may still be relevant to use more of them.
– There may be vaccines that are even better and have other properties. It’s great that we get more vaccines, says Madsen.
Explain that some vaccines may work better in the elderly than in the very young, and vice versa. Others may have a high degree of protection, but short-lived, and vice versa.
– So it may be relevant with different vaccines for different population groups, says Madsen.
– Thoroughly tested for side effects.
Studies show that up to 20 percent of the population does not want to get vaccinated against covid-19.
To ensure herd immunity to the virus, between 60 and 70 percent must receive the vaccine.
– We will do our best to provide objective and good information to people, so that they can take it with the best possible information base, says Madsen.
The last time the Norwegian health authorities began mass vaccination of the population was during the swine flu epidemic in 2009. In retrospect, several experienced side effects.
– It seems that so far the corona vaccine has very few side effects. Since it is a completely new technology, it is being tested in very large studies that reveal the various side effects. The Pfizer-Biontech vaccine has been tested in 43,000 subjects. Other candidates have been tested on 60,000.
– This will be a vaccine with high safety, says Madsen.
– Return to normal in one year
Professor Ugur Sahin, one of the founders of Biontech, tells the BBC that they expect to deliver 300 million doses worldwide by April.
However, he believes that infection control measures will last until 2022.
– Summer will help us because the contagion rate decreases, but it is important that vaccination be intensified towards the next autumn and winter.
Sahin says they don’t yet know how long they will be immune with the help of their vaccine, but that it will be easy to get refills if the effect wears off faster than desired.
Over the next several weeks, you will learn more about which age groups will have the best effect from the vaccine. According to Sahin, the most common side effects they have revealed are soreness in the vaccination area and mild to moderate fever.
– We have not seen any serious side effects that have led us to have to stop the study, he says.
