[ad_1]
The scientist behind the first possible Covid-19 vaccine to pass interim clinical trials says he is “very confident” that the injection will reduce transmission of the disease, perhaps by 50%, resulting in a “dramatic” reduction. of the cases.
The German company BioNTech and the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced last week with great success around the world that their jointly developed vaccine candidate had been shown to be 90% effective in preventing people from getting sick.
Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, said he hoped a more detailed analysis would show that the jab is also effective in stopping the spread of the disease, but probably not 90%. The certainty about its impact will not come until next year, he added.
The UK government’s joint committee on vaccination and immunization has published a list of groups of people who will be given priority to receive a Covid-19 vaccine. The list is:
1. All those over 80 years of age and health and social assistance workers.
2. All those 75 years of age or older.
3. All those aged 70 or over.
4. Everyone over 65 years of age.
5. Adults under 65 years of age at high risk of serious illness and mortality from Covid-19.
6. Adults under 65 years of age at moderate risk of severe illness and mortality from Covid-19.
7. All those aged 60 and over.
8. All those 55 and over.
9. All those of 50 years or more.
10. Rest of the population
Şahin, whom The Guardian interviewed earlier this week, told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: “As a scientist and extrapolating from what we have seen so far from other viruses, I would expect high efficacy in preventing diseases. in at least some efficacy in preventing infections.
“I’m very confident that human-to-human transmission will be reduced with such an effective vaccine, maybe not 90%, but maybe 50%. But we must not forget that even that would result in a drastic reduction in the spread of the pandemic. “
Şahin said scientists will better understand the impact of the candidate vaccine on slowing transmission “within a few months” after more detailed analysis of the antibody response in trial participants.
BioNTech has previously said that some crucial questions about the effectiveness of the jab will only be answered in the coming weeks and months. Establishing for sure whether it can also stop asymptomatic infections could take up to a year.
It is also not known how long the immunization will last after the vaccine has been administered, but Şahin said Sunday that the vaccine could be needed “every year, every two years or every five years,” depending on the antibody response.
The companies expect to distribute more than 300 million doses of the vaccine worldwide by April next year, with the first injections due next month. This would be too late to have a dramatic impact on the second wave that is sweeping across much of Europe and America, Şahin said, but could help the West have a “normal winter” next year.
“This winter will be tough. We will not have a big impact on infection numbers with our vaccine this winter. If everything continues to go well, we will start delivering the vaccine at the end of this year, early next year, ”he said.
“The biggest impact [not] it will happen until summer. Summer will help us anyway because the infection rate will go down. What is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate until the fall or before winter of next year.
“That means all immunization shots … must be done before next fall. We are confident that this will happen because several vaccine companies have been asked to increase supply so that we can have a normal winter next year. “
Şahin, whose wife, Özlem Türeci, is BioNTech’s chief medical officer, said he received the “extremely reassuring” news about the results of his interim trial in an 8 am call from Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla. When asked how he and his wife celebrated the news, Şahin said: “We sat down together and had tea … this is not just British, this is also Turkish.”
