Pfizer, BioNTech To File For Emergency Use of Coronavirus Vaccine On Friday
Source: US News
Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech will file for emergency use authorization of their coronavirus vaccine on Friday.
The companies, which have worked on the vaccine jointly, will file the paperwork with the Food and Drug Administration this week for use of the vaccine in the U.S., BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin told CNN on Wednesday.
Earlier Wednesday, the companies announced that final results of the phase three trial of their vaccine show it is 95% effective and has no serious side effects.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said during a briefing Wednesday that between Pfizer's vaccine and Moderna's potential vaccine, the U.S. could have approximately 40 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available to distribute by the end of the year.
COVID-19 has infected more than 11.4 million people in the U.S. and killed more than 249,470. ~
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-11-18/pfizer-biontech-to-file-for-emergency-use-of-coronavirus-vaccine-on-friday
- 'What Does Covid-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Mean?' AP News, Nov. 16, 2020.
.."U.S. health officials said a coronavirus vaccine would need to be at least 50% effective before they would consider approving it for use. There was concern that coronavirus vaccines might be only as effective as flu vaccines, which have ranged from 20% to 60% effective in recent years.
The broad, early effectiveness figures don’t tell the whole story. Scientists also need to understand how well the vaccine protects people in different age groups and demographic categories.
For both vaccines, the interim results were based on people who had COVID-19 symptoms that prompted a virus test. That means we don’t know yet whether someone who’s vaccinated might still get infected -- even if they show no symptoms -- and spread the virus.
Also unknown is whether the shots will give lasting protection, or whether boosters will be required."
https://apnews.com/article/what-does-covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness-dcf5899b93349fc4efe6a87519589bb3
