It's been a year filled with far more downs than ups but as we get to the last stretch of 2020, things are looking a bit more optimistic than it has in a while. Pfizer has confirmed that they've developed a vaccine that they say is 90% effective in preventing coronavirus infections. Before you get too excited, these are just the results of the preliminary testing. It's promising, though. Pfizer's vaccine could be as effective as the measles vaccine which ultimately ceased further spread of the disease.
"HUGE NEWS: Thanks to the public-private partnership forged by President @realDonaldTrump, @pfizer announced its Coronavirus Vaccine trial is EFFECTIVE, preventing infection in 90% of its volunteers," Mike Pence tweeted of the news.
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Despite Pence's eagerness to take credit for the vaccine, Pfizer's head of vaccine research and development, Kathin Jansen, distanced the company from the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed that aimed to set up and produce 300M vaccines for Americans by 2021.
"We have never taken any money from the U.S. government, or from anyone," Jansen told NYT. Adding that the company was "never part" of Operation Warp Speed. However, a press release from July revealed that the company did make an agreement with Operation Warp Speed for 100M doses for $1.95B. Pfizer clarified that while they did strike a deal, they took no money from the government for research and development.
Prior to news of the vaccine, scientists had predicted that because of the unknown nature of the virus, most vaccines would only be 55% effective. The trials for Pfizer's vaccine included 43,538 participants. Only 94 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections were documented within the pool of participants.
The vaccine will require two doses taken 28 days apart from each other. Hopefully, this pulls through. Will you be getting the vaccine?
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