The race for a vaccine has been escalating over the past few days, including several major statements. On November 9, the Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories announced their vaccine was “90% effective” according to the preliminary results of the phase 3. Then, on Wednesday November 11, Russia announced its candidate vaccine, Sputnik V, was 92% effective against coronavirus. For all that, there is everything left to play for! And no vaccine has been validated so far.
According to European Center for Disease Prevention and Control director Andrea Ammon, the first anti covid-19 vaccinations could “take a few months” and happen in the European Union “in first quarter of 2021”: “optimistically (in the) first quarter next year, but I can't be more precise”.
But for now, Andrea Ammon says the current situation in Europe is “very very worrying” and says “all our indicators are going in the wrong direction” and in this current context, “it might take longer to bring down the number of cases than during the first wave”. The ECDPC director urges Europeans to comply with the health restrictions set up in their countries, “as difficult as it is”.
As for the statement from the Pfizer and BioNTech laboratories, Andrea Ammon found it “promising” but the director underlines this statement “it’s a press release and not a ‘peer review’ (editor’s note: peer review) so we have to see what the final evaluation will be”. After the last trials, it will be the European Medicines Agency to validate the Pfizer vaccine or not, “Then we will have to start production and only then can we start to vaccinate”.
