A preliminary analysis has suggested that the first Covid-19 vaccine can prevent more than 90% of people from getting the disease.
The vaccine has far exceeded the expectations of many medical experts and its developers - Pfizer and BioNTech - described it as a "great day for science and humanity".
Their vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries with no safety concerns raised to date, and the companies plan to apply for emergency approval to use the vaccine by the end of the month.
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Dr Albert Bourla, the Pfizer CEO said: “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.”
The BBC stated that a vaccine - alongside better treatments - is seen as the best way of getting out of the restrictions that have been imposed on all our lives.
Source: Nature
The Guardian further reported that regulators have said they would approve a vaccine that is just 50% effective – protecting half those who get it.
Although still in the experimentation process, two doses of the vaccine, three weeks apart, are needed. The trials - in US, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey - show 90% protection is achieved seven days after the second dose.
Pfizer believes it will be able to supply 50m doses by the end of 2020, and around 1.3bn by the end of next year. The UK has already ordered 30m doses.
The vaccine has to be kept in ultra-cold storage at below minus 80C and there are still questions as to how long immunity lasts, but regulators and medical experts seem highly hopeful at this stage.
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