Covid: Who will get the Pfizer vaccine first and when can I get it?

A vaccine that can prevent nine out of 10 people from contracting Covid-19 will be submitted for emergency approval.

Its developers, Pfizer and BioNTech, said it had been tested on 43,500 people, with no safety issues arising.

The vaccine trains the immune system to fight the coronavirus.

It is a new type of vaccine called an RNA vaccine, and it uses a small piece of the virus’s genetic code. This begins to form part of the virus within the body, which the immune system recognizes as foreign and begins to attack.

It is given in two doses, three weeks apart, and early data suggests that it protects more than 90% of people from developing Covid symptoms.

There are no RNA vaccines that have been approved for use in people.

The concept has been researched before and given to people in clinical trials for other diseases.

The vaccine will be considered by regulatory agencies around the world, which will decide whether the vaccine can be approved for use.

It depends on how old you are, as age is the biggest risk factor for severe Covid-19.

In the UK, nursing home residents and nursing home staff are at the top of the preliminary priority list. Are

followed by health workers, such as hospital staff.

Then people are sorted by age, with people under 50 at the bottom of the list.

The first hits can take place before Christmas if all goes well.

However, there are huge logistical challenges to overcome, including the need to store the vaccine at minus 80 ° C, something beyond the surgery of your local GP.

It is impossible to know and we will find the answer only by waiting.

If immunity does not last, it may be necessary to get vaccinated every year, in the same way as for the flu.

The data did not show whether protection against Covid-19 was the same in all age groups. However, previous studies suggested that young and old people might produce an immune response.

There will also be some people, such as those with weak immune systems, who will not be able to get the vaccine.

Nothing in medicine is 100% safe, even something we take without thinking, such as paracetamol, has risks.

The data so far is reassuring: Trials with 43,500 people found no safety concerns, although mild side effects have been reported.

If there were very dangerous and common consequences from this vaccine, they should have become apparent.

However, rarer side effects can emerge as millions of people are immunized.

Hopefully yes, but not for a while.

If enough people are immune, the virus would stop spreading and we would not need other measures to control the virus.

The challenge, however, is to get to that point from now on.

There is still the monumental challenge of making enough vaccines and getting them to people. Everything is going to take time and we need something to control the virus until then.

Therefore, tests, lockdowns, social distancing and the use of masks will be a feature of our lives for a while yet.

Viruses mutate all the time, that’s what they do. The question is, will they mutate in a way that changes their behavior?

So far there is no indication that this happens, but it is possible that in the future the virus will change and the vaccine will be less effective.

If that happens, a new coronavirus vaccine may need to be designed.

This is not unusual. Each year a new influenza vaccine is developed to try to match the strains of influenza that are circulating.

And RNA vaccine technology is very easy to modify, so this shouldn’t be a major problem.

The vaccine has been designed and developed by Pfizer and BioNtech, and they own the intellectual property.

They already have the manufacturing capacity to produce 1.3 billion doses by the end of next year, but could partner with others to increase capacity even further.

The ad gave us the headline, but fine details are still missing.

We don’t know if the vaccine keeps you from getting and spreading the virus or just keeps you from getting sick. We also don’t know how protective the vaccine is in different age groups.

These will be crucial to understanding how it will be used.

This is good news. It shows that a coronavirus vaccine is possible, which we didn’t know about a couple of days ago.

Since many of the vaccines target the same part of the virus, known as spike protein, it raises the hope that they will work too.

There are about a dozen vaccines in the final stages of clinical development.

No vaccine has gone from the drawing board to being highly effective in such a short time.

We are still waiting for the full data, but these results are even better than people expected. A good flu shot protects about half of people, so 90% on the first try is a win.