Both Pfizer and Moderna, two pharmaceutical companies tasked with providing a vaccine for COVID-19, have reported that their results are more than 90% effective. This is great news, as both Los Angeles and Staten Island, New York, are believed to be prepping for lockdowns, with the former already having a strict 10 pm curfew in place.
Pfizer shared their news on November 18, saying their vaccine had a success rate of 95% and that they were looking to clear it soon. As documented by the Seattle Times, Pfizer, along with their German partner, BioNTech, are currently prepping to formally ask the U.S. if the vaccine can begin being used immediately.
This success rate is even higher than initially thought.
Earlier this month, Albert Bourla told Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN‘s chief medical correspondent, “What we know right now, it is with a very, very high level of confidence, [is that] these are very highly effective vaccines.” The company wanted to wait until results were in to share any safety precautions, with Bourla adding, “[W]e don’t have any safety concerns, but we need to wait until the results are there.”
Meanwhile, Moderna has completed studies in the UK and Brazil, and revealed that theirs was highly effective in preventing COVID-19.
“No hospitalizations or severe cases were reported in study participants. [We] will now immediately prepare regulatory submission of the data to authorities around the world that have a framework in place for conditional or early approval,” Moderna’s study noted. “The Company will seek an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization for an accelerated pathway to vaccine availability in low-income countries.”
The groups that are first in line to receive the vaccine are health care workers, first responders and essential workers. If all goes as planned, with the Food and Drug Administration still needing to debate results, possibly at the top of next month, Pfizer’s vaccine could be rolled out as early as December.