Recently, the world has received a glimmer of hope in terms of the race to develop a safe and effective vaccine to combat COVID-19. On November 16th, Moderna announced that their vaccination has 94.5% efficacy. Meanwhile, Pfizer, who previously announced a week prior, stated that their vaccine was 90% effective, released new results on November 23rd, that their drug’s efficacy has increased to as much as 95%, and it has “no serious side effects.” If that wasn’t enough, AstraZeneca just announced that their vaccine has 90% effectiveness according to the article titled “What You Need to Know about AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Pfizer Vaccines,” from the Washington Post.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that he trusts Pfizer’s promising results, and said that those of Moderna is “impressive” in a November 10th MSNBC interview with Andrea Mitchell. However, this raises one big question: If any of these vaccines are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), how will they be distributed?
Well, the next step for Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca is to apply their vaccinations with the FDA for emergency use authorization, and, then, in December, the administration will take a vote to determine which vaccine will be greenlit. An advisory committee for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention will “discuss prioritizing vaccines for high-risk groups.”
When it comes to doses, it is projected that Moderna will produce 40 million doses, which should be “enough for 20 million people, by the end of the year,” according to the Washington Post. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca has stated that 4 million doses should be produced by the end of the year and that 40 million could be successfully produced in the “first quarter” of next year.
However, the road back to normalcy isn’t so smooth from here, as Dr. Fauci and many other health experts have stated, a vaccine will not spell an immediate end to the pandemic and that people will still need to take safety measures even after one is produced. Also, those same experts have stressed that a vaccine will “require two doses” in order for people to be immune, according to an article “The first Covid-19 vaccines will likely require two shots” from The Verge.
It is clear that we still have a long way to go when it comes to successfully stave off the COVID-19 pandemic, but, just based on the promising data when it comes to vaccinations, it is also clear that there may be a solution coming to us sooner rather than later, and that can only mean a positive future outlook.
