Prof Ugur Sahin, one of the creators of the coronavirus vaccine at BioNTech which is developing a coronavirus vaccine along with co-developers Pfizer has said that the impact of the COVID vaccine will kick in significantly over summer next year and life should be back to normal by winters in 2021, India Today reported.
Prof Sahin also raised hopes the vaccine could halve transmission of the coronavirus, resulting in a “dramatic reduction in cases”, the journal reported quoting BBC.
In an interview on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Prof Sahin said he expected further analysis to show the vaccine would reduce transmission between people as well as stop symptoms developing in someone who has had the vaccine.
“I’m very confident that transmission between people will be reduced by such a highly effective vaccine – maybe not 90% but maybe 50% – but we should not forget that even that could result in a dramatic reduction of the pandemic spread,” he said.
Vaccine in 2020 end
If everything continued to go well, he told BBC, the vaccine would begin to be delivered at the “end of this year, beginning of next year”.
He said the goal was to deliver more than 300 million doses worldwide by next April, which “could allow us to only start to make an impact”.
“Summer will help us because the infection rate will go down in the summer and what is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate until or before autumn/winter next year,” he said in the interview.
Prof Sahin said it was essential that all immunisation programmes were completed before next autumn.
The hiccups
- The vaccine needs approval from regulators which will only come if they are assured that the vaccine is safe and works well.
- There is no data yet to show how well the jab works in those who need it the most – the elderly.
- We don’t know if it stops people from spreading the disease, as well as getting sick
- It is not clear how long immunity might last. People might need yearly boosters.
- If the vaccine is rolled out, it will take time to immunise and protect enough people, said the report.
- Other COVID-19 vaccines may come along that work just as well or even better than this new vaccine.
Side effects
Prof Sahin told BBC that the “key side effects” of the vaccine were a mild to moderate pain in the injection site for a few days, while some participants had a mild to moderate fever over a similar period.
“We did not see any other serious side effects which would result in pausing or halting of the study,” BBC quoted Sahin as saying.
