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Several pharmaceutical companies have announced that they can begin administering a vaccine as soon as there is an approval. It has led several countries to develop plans for a rapid start of mass vaccination.
The EU has signed a purchase agreement. where Sweden has an option that ensures doses to member countries. If all vaccines are approved by the European Medicines Agency, this means that vaccine doses are assured for the entire Swedish population. Vaccine coordinator Richard Bergström hopes that Sweden can start vaccinating against covid-19 in January.
– We have a contract that contains volumes starting in January, but a prerequisite for that to happen is that the vaccine is approved, Richard Bergström previously told DN.
Several other countries are also in the starting blocks for a vaccine.
In the United States, it is expected to begin vaccinating the population from next month.
“Our plan is to be able to send vaccines to vaccination sites within 24 hours of approval,” US government vaccine coordinator Moncef Slaoui told CNN.
Last friday left Pharmaceutical company Pfizer submitted an application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to quickly approve its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, citing an emergency. Pfizer could have 50 million doses ready this year that could provide protection to 25 million people.
The FDA says that on December 10 the authority will meet with external advisers to begin discussing the issue.
Moncef Slaoui tells CNN that this means that the first vaccinations can begin on December 11 or 12. If all goes according to plan, the United States expects to vaccinate between 20 and 30 million people a month.
In May next year, it is estimated that up to 70 percent of Americans will be vaccinated and then the country may have achieved herd immunity, which means the virus cannot spread in the same way, according to Moncef Slaoui.
According to Pfizer and the German company Biontech, who are working together on the development of vaccines, a final analysis shows that their candidate was 95 percent effective in preventing Covid-19.
Also Modern Pharma It is far ahead in terms of contacts with the FDA and its vaccine is expected to be approved by the end of December.
Moncef Slaoui says that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine did not show any serious side effects during testing. In the United States, more than twelve million people have been reported to be infected.
In the UK, Pfizer’s variant of the vaccine is expected to be approved by the end of the week. Thereafter, the elderly and caregivers can begin vaccination in December, followed by other adults in January, according to The Telegraph. In April, all adults in the country can be vaccinated, according to the draft vaccination program.
On Monday, the AstraZeneca company announced that its AZD1222 vaccine against covid-19, which is being developed together with the British University of Oxford, has an average efficacy of 70 percent.
But there’s a catch: of two different dosing regimens, one had a better profile.
In a group that received a half dose followed by a full dose, the effectiveness increased to 90 percent. While in participants who received two full doses, the vaccine was 62 percent effective. It is not clear why there is a difference. The study included 20,000 people, half in the UK and half in Brazil.
The UK has an option for 100 million doses, which should be enough for 50 million people, writes the BBC.
According to Professor Andrew Pollard, CEO of AstraZeneca, the company is ready to begin administering the vaccine as soon as approval is obtained, Retuers writes.
Germany also hopes to start vaccination against covid-19 already this year, says Health Minister Jens Spahn.
– There are reasons to be optimistic that there will be an approval for a vaccine in Europe this year. And then we can get started right away, he tells Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
He has asked the states to have their vaccination centers ready by mid-December, and estimates that the 300 million doses that the country has obtained will be enough and in excess.
The UN agency Unicef is planning to be able to distribute the covid vaccine also to developing countries. Together with the World Health Organization (WHO), they are collaborating with 350 airlines and transport companies to be able to deliver almost two billion doses and syringes to countries such as Burundi, Afghanistan and Yemen next year.
“This invaluable collaboration will go a long way toward ensuring that there is sufficient transportation capacity for this gigantic historic operation,” Etleva Kadilli, director of Unicef’s delivery organization, said in a statement.
The logistics of transporting vaccines is in itself a challenge as extreme refrigeration requirements are required, for example, Pfizer’s vaccine must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius in order not to be destroyed. But the company’s plan is to be able to drive around 7.6 million daily doses in 24 trucks from Kalamazoo and Puurs to airports, for subsequent transportation around the world.
read more:
Seven vaccines that can protect Swedes against covid-19
The challenge: keep the vaccine colder than on planet Mars
Sweden can get a vaccine in January; it is unclear how long immunity will last
