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*This blog was written by Walter Navid, Happy Healthy Us' Director of Operations.
While America has eased COVID-19 restrictions over the last couple of months, rates of infection are at all time highs, and the disease has now killed over a million people worldwide. While politicians can debate the cost and benefits of the lockdowns, a vaccination against the virus will be the only way to control COVID-19. This week, we may have finally got the news everyone has been waiting for. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer claims they have a vaccine that is 90% effective.
While many questions are still to be answered, Pfizer did release its statistical method. They administered the vaccine and a placebo of salt water using a blinded test so that the volunteers, doctors, and company executives did not know who got which treatment. Out of the 44,000 treatments administered, only 9 people have developed COVID-19. The trial will continue until 164 people develop COVID-19, but the early results appear promising. According to top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, “the bottom line is, as a vaccine it’s more than 90% effective, which is extraordinary.”
If Pfizer’s vaccine is approved by the FDA in December, the company claimed they would be able to produce 50 million doses before the end of the year and upwards of 1.3 billion doses in 2021. Pfizer executives remain hopeful that the vaccine will be available to high risk populations by the end of the year if all regulations are passed smoothly. However, this exciting news is no cause to ease the guard against COVID-19. Masking, social distancing, and hygienic measures are still essential to containing COVID-19 even if the vaccine is approved as supply will initially be limited. As both a member of the scientific community and a regulator as a University of Pennsylvania professor and a member of the FDA respectively, Dr. Paul Offit aptly states that despite the vaccine’s initial progress, “you still owe it to others to make sure you wear a mask.”
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