[ad_1]
It is not enough to satisfy the need. We depend on more vaccines to be successful.
On Monday, it emerged that Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical group, believed its landmark coronavirus mRNA vaccine was safe and effective.
Also read: If Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine against corona is approved, there could be a revolution
Soon after, the EU signed an agreement to buy 200 million dispenser of the vaccine – with the possibility of buying another 100 million later.
Also read: The EU estimates that vaccination will start in early 2021
Too few doses to cover risk groups
It has not been decided how many of these vaccines Norway will receive, but there are strong indications that Norway will receive one percent of all vaccines received by the EU. Then Norway in the first phase will have access to 2 million doses, and maybe a million later.
This may sound like a lot, but the problem is that the Pfizer vaccine relies on two doses per person to work.
The Ministry of Health and Sanitary Services confirms to Nettavisen that the EU contracting agreement applies to the number of doses, not the number of potential vaccinated.
Therefore, 2 million doses alone are enough for one million people.
In comparison, an estimated 1.6 million people are in the risk group in Norway.
The EU is not the only one who wants to buy doses
Pfizer aims to produce 50 million doses by the New Year and up to 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year. That is enough for about 650 million people.
By comparison, there are almost 750 million people living in Europe and around 330 million in the United States.
Also read: – People must be prepared for crown measurements to be long
In addition to the EU purchase agreement for 200 + 100 million doses, the US already signed an agreement this summer for 100 + 600 million doses of the vaccine. The UK has an existing 30 million dose deal, while Canada has bought an unknown number of millions.
Japan, for its part, has an agreement to purchase 130 million doses, guaranteed to be delivered in the first half of 2021.
According to Global Justice Now, more than 80 percent of the production volume has already been sold.
Depending on various vaccines
In practice, this means that the Pfizer vaccine alone will not be enough to solve the corona situation in Europe during 2021, but it will also depend on the approval of several of the vaccines that are in development.
The EU has entered into acquisition agreements or letters of intent with vaccines from AztraZeneca / Oxford, Moderna, Sanofi-GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Curevac, in addition to Pfizer / BioNTech.
Also read: Oxford corona vaccine severely delayed
Anyway, more vaccinations will probably be important. It is not yet known if Pfizer’s vaccine will work for all age groups and people with other underlying diseases. The National Institute of Public Health has repeatedly written that it estimates that there will be a need for several different vaccines, which will have different properties, which may target different groups.
– It is not known when vaccines are approved, what properties they have, what use they receive, when they are delivered to Norway and in what quantities, writes FHI in its latest risk report.
Also read: Three vaccines struggle to get approved first: Favorites can create additional challenges
Advertising
This is NRK’s 2020 Christmas calendar
