Has it been a while since you’ve heard some good news?

This month, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced what could be a huge step forward in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its Phase 3 clinical trial, their new vaccine was shown to be 90% effective in blocking the virus in participants.

Good news amid a pandemic

This promising result is based on an evaluation from an independent committee that was assigned to review the results of the trial.

While this is certainly promising news… it’s still too early to draw conclusions based on what they’ve found. So, the results are not final or officially verified – yet.

The vaccine is based on the medical duo’s newer technology that has been used to try to find a cure for the virus. It offers several advantages, such as how fast it can be developed and the potential efficacy.

Phase 3 of this trial involved 43,358 participants. Pfizer claims the participants have had “no serious safety concerns that have been observed”.

According to this early study, the participants who have the vaccine are protected at 28 days after the first dosage. In total, two doses have to be injected.

Many hope that the vaccine will be safe – and so far, things are looking good

 

These results are promising – and they come sooner than expected. However, more safety tests and studies are needed before the vaccine becomes available to the rest of the population.

The companies are still conducting safety tests. These tests will become available later this month. The goal is to see how the participants have been reacting thus far.

Researchers will closely monitor participants

People in this study will also be monitored for two years after they receive their final dose so that researchers can see if there are any long-term effects.

The vaccine still needs to be peer-reviewed by other scientists and scientific publications to ensure its safety and possible outcomes.

Pfizer hopes to produce about 50 million doses of the vaccine by the end of this year, with 1.3 billion doses projected through 2021. And, other researchers seem hopeful about the progress as well.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned about vaccines during this time? Do you think the process is being rushed? Or is it a necessity in order to save lives (and get us back to normal sooner)?

Let us know your thoughts, and comments, in the box below!