COVID-19 has been causing global havoc, especially in the United States, for all of 2020. When the pandemic hit last March, schools went fully virtual, sporting events were halted, and many high school traditions like prom and graduation were canceled. During the whole, one question remained: when will a vaccine be ready? And with multiple breakthroughs, the opportunity to become immunized is approaching sooner rather than later.
For starters, one of the main vaccine contributors, Pfizer, has had their vaccine clear phase 3. The company recently announced that the dose was able to meet all Primary Endpoints for efficacy. This means that the vaccine is 95% effective, is efficient amongst all demographics of age, gender, race, and ethnicity, all while only contracting very rare side effects (Headache and fatigue) at no greater than 3%. After clearing the original efficacy hurdles, the company expects to be able to produce upwards of 50 million doses by the end of 2020 with that number soaring up to 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.
Moreover, the BBC expects that the first batch of the vaccine could be released to the public by early December, which would be a huge step forward in regaining the normalcy that once resided in the world. Overall, the rollout of the vaccine would be determined by the states themselves on who gets first dibs with the government recommending that the more vulnerable populations get priority. People with pre-existing heart conditions and the elderly have been spotlighted throughout the whole pandemic as people with the most risk to suffer through symptoms at the most severe level.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert said that total immunity against COVID-19 could be achieved in America quicker than people may think on the condition that enough Americans are vaccinated.
Even if the Pfizer vaccine falls through after filing for emergency use in late November, the biotechnology company Moderna also announced a vaccine with great testing results. Announcing similar efficacy results and chance of side effects as Pfizer, Moderna claims the advantage of not needing to store the dose at an ice-cold temperature. This one difference could tip Moderna over the marketing edge of Pfizer. Either way, both Moderna and Pfizer are working toward the same goal: that the public is immune and life can move forward again.
But the research does not stop at Pfizer and Moderna. BioNTech and University Hospitals are also conducting their tests on a Covid-19 vaccine with a common goal of saving the world from the virus that put it a brief pause on life. And with all these companies pushing to release their vaccine to the public as quickly as they can, Pfizer along is planning to release 50 million+ vaccines by the end of the year.
UPDATE: 11-25-20, 12:07 P.M. Redundancy removed, “March 2020” replaced with “last March”
