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One of the teams vying to develop a coronavirus vaccine announced Monday that its drug had shown 90 percent effectiveness, sending markets skyrocketing and raising hopes of ending the worst pandemic in a century. .
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said that trials involving more than 40,000 people had yielded results that were a “critical milestone” in the search for a vaccine, as global infections exceeded 50 million, including an alarming 10 million now. only in the United States.
Stock markets had already risen after Democrat Joe Biden was called the winner of the US presidential election at the weekend. They accelerated quickly on the vaccine news, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising three percent at the close of business on Monday.
An effective vaccine is seen as the best hope for breaking the cycle of deadly virus waves followed by severe restrictions across much of the world since Covid-19 first emerged in China late last year.
Tens of millions of people in Europe live under lockdowns that prevent them from leaving their homes, and millions of business owners are experiencing forced closures.
– ‘Much needed breakthrough’ –
Restrictions on daily life have wrecked the world economy, but politicians have had few other tools to protect vulnerable populations.
“We are a significant step closer to bringing people around the world a much-needed breakthrough to help end this global health crisis,” Pfizer President Albert Bourla said in a statement.
The drug, developed in conjunction with the German company BioNTech, is one of more than 40 candidate vaccines, but no other has made similar claims about its efficacy.
The companies said they could overcome the final hurdles for a US deployment later this month and could supply up to 50 million doses globally this year and up to 1.3 billion next.
The scientific community reacted positively, and leading US expert Anthony Fauci described the results as “extraordinary.”
The director of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, praised the news as “encouraging” shortly after warning that the world “could be tired of Covid-19”. But he’s not tired of us. “
But others noted that information about the ages of the trial participants had not yet been released.
“If a vaccine is going to reduce serious illness and death, and thus allow the general population to return to their normal daily lives, it must be effective in the elderly and elderly members of our society,” said Eleanor Riley. , professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh.
– Biden Task Force –
Outgoing US President Donald Trump was one of the first to react, writing on Twitter: “BIG BAG MARKET, VACCINES COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SO GOOD NEWS! ”
American voters gave Biden the victory in part because Trump was unable to control the epidemic, often refusing to back restrictive measures or even wearing a mask in public and repeatedly undermining his own experts.
Biden, who will not take office until January, has already announced a task force to tackle Covid-19, as confirmed infections surpassed 10 million and US deaths approached 238,000.
“We are still facing a very dark winter,” he said. “The bottom line: I will spare no effort to reverse this pandemic once we swear.”
– ‘Out of control’ –
News about vaccines will be of particular relief to people in Europe, the current focal point of the pandemic and the region subject to the most widespread restrictions.
The European Union said Monday that it could soon sign a contract with Pfizer and BioNTech for 300 million doses of the new coronavirus vaccine.
“European science works!” declared Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, congratulating the companies after they demanded a breakthrough.
On Monday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky became the latest leader to test positive for the virus, and his office said he was feeling fine and would isolate himself and continue working.
Italy was approaching a total lockdown, and experts warned of pressure on hospitals.
“There is no doubt that the situation is largely out of control,” said Massimo Galli, head of the infectious diseases department at Milan’s Sacco hospital.
Grim news continued to arrive elsewhere, with Russia again breaking its record for daily infections on Monday.
Hungary is now one of the worst hit countries in terms of deaths proportional to its population, and the government announced new national restrictions that will take effect on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Portugal has entered a state of emergency that will see the majority of the population taxed with curfews.
In France, which has imposed stay-at-home orders nationwide and is recording more than 40,000 cases a day, the central bank revised its expectations for sidewalk damage.
“Before the second wave, we thought that the recession would be a little less than nine percent, today we believe that for 2020 as a whole it will be between nine and 10 percent,” said the director of the Banque de France, Francois Villeroy of Galhau.
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