Page 12 - aruba-today-20201110

A12 HEALTH
Tuesday 10 November 2020
Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine is looking 90% effective

By LAURAN NEERGAARD ing the news until after the
and LINDA A. JOHNSON election. Donald Trump Jr.
AP Medical Writers tweeted: "The timing of this
Pfizer Inc. said Monday that is pretty amazing. Nothing
its COVID-19 vaccine may nefarious about the timing
be a remarkable 90% ef- of this at all right?"
fective, based on early and Pfizer has insisted that its
incomplete test results that work is not influenced by
nevertheless brought a big politics and that it was
burst of optimism to a world "moving at the speed of
desperate for the means to science." Its independent
finally bring the catastroph- data monitors met on Sun-
ic outbreak under control. day, analyzing the COV-
The announcement came ID-19 test results so far and
less than a week after an notifying Pfizer.
election seen as a refer- Pfizer opted not to join the
endum on President Don- Trump administration's Op-
ald Trump's handling of the eration Warp Speed, which
scourge, which has killed helped fund a half-dozen
more than 1.2 million peo- vaccine makers. The com-
ple worldwide, including al- pany instead said it has
most a quarter-million in the invested billions of its own
United States alone. dollars.
"We're in a position poten- The strong results were a
tially to be able to offer surprise. Scientists have
some hope," Dr. Bill Gruber, warned for months that
Pfizer's senior vice president any COVID-19 shot may
of clinical development, be only as good as flu vac-
told The Associated Press. cines, which are about 50%
"We're very encouraged." effective and require year-
Pfizer, which is developing This May 4, 2020, file photo provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, shows ly immunizations. Earlier this
the vaccine with its Ger- the first patient enrolled in Pfizer's COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine clinical trial at the University of year, Fauci said he would
man partner BioNTech, Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. be happy with a COVID-19
now is on track to apply Associated Press vaccine that was 60% ef-
later this month for emer- fective.
gency-use approval from by March, when the U.N. might change as more CO- on Monday, the highest in Whatever the ultimate
the U.S. Food and Drug Ad- agency hopes to start vac- VID-19 cases are added to the world. New cases are level of protection, no one
ministration, once it has the cinating high-risk groups. the calculations. running at all-time highs knows if people will need
necessary safety informa- Global markets, already Dr. Jesse Goodman of of more than 100,000 per regular vaccinations.
tion in hand. buoyed by the victory of Georgetown University, day. And tens of thousands Also, volunteers in the
Even if all goes well, au- President-elect Joe Biden, former chief of the FDA's more deaths are feared in study received a corona-
thorities have stressed it is rocketed on the news from vaccine division, called the the coming months, with virus test only if they de-
unlikely any vaccine will ar- Pfizer. The S&P 500 was up partial results "extremely the onset of cold weather veloped symptoms, leav-
rive much before the end 3.3% in afternoon trading, promising" but ticked off and the holidays. ing unanswered whether
of the year, and the limited while the Dow Jones Indus- many questions still to be Pfizer's vaccine is among vaccinated people could
initial supplies will be ra- trial Average gained more answered, including how four candidates already get infected but show no
tioned. than 1,300 points. Pfizer long the vaccine's effects in huge studies in the U.S., symptoms and unknowing-
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. jumped more than 11%. last and whether it protects with still more being tested ly spread the virus.
government's top infec- Other vaccine stocks were older people as well as in other countries. Another Pfizer has estimated it could
tious-disease expert, said up as well. younger ones. U.S. company, Moderna have 50 million doses avail-
the results suggesting 90% Still, Monday's announce- Trump, who had suggest- Inc., also hopes to file an able globally by the end of
effectiveness are "just ex- ment doesn't mean for cer- ed repeatedly during the application with the FDA 2020, enough for 25 million
traordinary," adding: "Not tain that a vaccine is immi- presidential campaign that late this month. people.
very many people expect- nent: This interim analysis, a vaccine could be ready Both companies' shots are Public Citizen, the consum-
ed it would be as high as from an independent data by Election Day, tweeted: made with a brand-new er advocacy group, called
that." monitoring board, looked "STOCK MARKET UP BIG, technology. These "mRNA the release of the prelimi-
"It's going to have a major at 94 infections recorded VACCINE COMING SOON. vaccines" aren't made nary and incomplete data
impact on everything we so far in a study that has en- REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. with the coronavirus itself, "bad science" and said that
do with respect to COVID," rolled nearly 44,000 people SUCH GREAT NEWS!" meaning there's no chance any enthusiasm over the
Fauci said as Pfizer ap- in the U.S. and five other Biden, for his part, wel- anyone could catch it from results "must be tempered"
peared to take the lead in countries. comed the news but cau- the shots. Instead, the vac- until they are reviewed by
the all-out global race by Some participants got the tioned that it could be cine contains a piece of the FDA and its indepen-
pharmaceutical compa- vaccine, while others got many months before vac- genetic code that trains dent experts.
nies and various countries dummy shots. Pfizer re- cinations become wide- the immune system to rec- "Crucial information ab-
to develop a well-tested leased no specific break- spread in the U.S., and he ognize the spiked protein sent from the companies'
vaccine against the virus. downs, but for the vaccine warned Americans to rely on the surface of the virus. announcement is any evi-
Dr. Bruce Aylward, the to be 90% effective, nearly on masks and social dis- The timing of Pfizer's an- dence that the vaccine
World Health Organiza- all the infections must have tancing in the meantime. nouncement is likely to prevents serious COVID-19
tion's senior adviser, said occurred in placebo recipi- He said the country still fac- feed unsubstantiated suspi- cases or reduces hospital-
Pfizer's vaccine could ents. The study is continu- es a "dark winter." cions from Trump support- izations and deaths due to
"fundamentally change ing, and Pfizer cautioned Confirmed infections in ers that the pharmaceuti- the disease," the organiza-
the direction of this crisis" that the protection rate the U.S. eclipsed 10 million cal industry was withhold- tion said.q