The German pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, has promised to start the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year.
After months of a coronavirus lockdown, the hope of a vaccine has spread optimism through people and businesses alike. The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine has promised to do just that, after successful testing trials. The company has received emergency FDA approval, in order to start administering the vaccine to high-risk groups by the end of the year. But even though the end of COVID-19 is becoming clearer, the general public should not become complacent just yet.
The United States alone has reached a groundbreaking 10 million COVID cases and 242,000 deaths. Cases are growing at the rate of 100,000 per day, and winter holidays and family gatherings only threaten to worsen that number. In fact, many European countries have begun second and third lockdowns to stall the spread of the virus.
The effectiveness of the vaccine has stunned experts, seen when Dr. Anthony Fauci, Head of the NAIDH, said the results were, “just extraordinary.” While a panel of experts has reviewed the findings of Pfizer and their partner company BioNTech, the details regarding the experiments have not been disclosed to the public, with the exception of the success rates among trial patients.
Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, has said that, “This is a historical moment, this was a devastating situation, a pandemic, and we have embarked on a path and a goal that nobody ever has achieved — to come up with a vaccine within a year.” While reliable reports from experts can testify to the truth of Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s accomplishments, the President is skeptical of their timing.
When Pfizer initially released its findings, the company received harsh criticism from President Trump who tweeted that Pfizer has intentionally shielded its results from the public until after the election. Pfizer, however, denied this accusation saying the vaccine was simply “moving at the speed of science.” Despite the enthusiastic approval of many experts, the vaccine comes with a few downsides.
The speed of developing the vaccine has accelerated, but the distribution of the vaccine will take much longer. This is in part due to the extreme conditions needed to store the vaccine. In order to retain its effectiveness, the vaccine must be stored at -70 degrees Celsius (-94 degrees Fahrenheit), or else it spoils in five days. This vastly inhibits the vaccine’s ability to be distributed in rural areas and is overall quite costly. Unable to fund distribution, some developing countries are simply giving up on the vaccine. T. Sundararaman, coordinator of the People’s Health Movement in Delhi, has said that, “Most of these vaccines need minus 70 degrees, which we just can’t do in India, just forget it.”
Even though this news is not an excuse to flout coronavirus regulations, it will without a doubt instill happiness in people from all around the world. COVID-19 cases have grown exponentially, but the hope for life without the pandemic may not be a dream much longer.
