The inventor of the COVID-19 vaccine expects the pandemic to end next winter

This material is also available in Ukrainian.

According to the professor, the vaccine will halve the spread of the coronavirus (Photo: REUTERS / Dado Ruvic / File photo)

He told about it in an interview with the BBC.

«I am absolutely sure that the vaccine will reduce the transmission of the virus from person to person, maybe not 90%, maybe 50%, but we must not forget that even this can lead to a strong reduction in the spread of the pandemic ”, he emphasized.

The professor suggests that if all goes well with the vaccine, the vaccination will begin «by the end of this – early next year. ”According to him, by April 2021, this will start to significantly affect the spread of the coronavirus.

«The summer will help us, because in the summer the infection rate will decrease and what is especially important is that we obtain a high level of vaccination before the autumn-winter of next year or earlier, ”explained Shahin.

He expressed his hope that next winter the planet will return to normal.

The main side effect of the coronavirus vaccine is pain at the injection site for several days, he said. Some trial participants developed a fever for several days after the injection. So far, researchers have found no other serious side effects.

The BioNTech vaccine is one of 11 currently in the final stages of testing.

Recall, clinical trials of a vaccine developed by the American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the German biotechnology company BioNTech have shown encouraging results. The vaccine prevented 90% of infections in a study with tens of thousands of volunteers. The price of a dose of this vaccine in the United States will remain around 19 dollars. After testing is complete, the EU plans to buy 300 million doses of the vaccine; expects vaccination in EU countries to start in the first quarter of 2021.

According to the Ministry of Health, the coronavirus vaccine will start in Ukraine in late spring or early summer 2021.