Vaccine ‘next month’
FRANKFURT: The German maker of a top coronavirus vaccine said its jab could be delivered as early as next month, offering more promising news even as virus deaths in the world’s worst-affected country, the US, passed a quarter of a million.
A slew of positive clinical vaccine trials is building hope for an end to the pandemic, but World Health Organisation officials warn any vaccine may not arrive quickly enough to halt a new surge, forcing many nations to reimpose strict lockdowns.
The BioNTech/Pfizer shot and another one from US firm Moderna have taken the lead in the race for a vaccine, after large-scale trial data this month showed their jabs were about 95 per cent effective.
“There is a chance that we can receive approval from the US or Europe or both regions this year still,” said BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin. “We may even start delivering the vaccine in December.”
Echoing the positive message, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc could approve both vaccines “as early as the second half of December”.
Trials for another vaccine, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, also show it safely produces a robust immune response in healthy older people, while producing fewer side effects than in younger people.
News of positive steps towards a vaccine contrasted with grim figures from the US, where 250,000 people have now died from the disease.
Many US states and cities are imposing a raft of new restrictions.
But in some parts of Europe, there were signs new restrictions imposed to halt a second wave were working. New infections in Germany have plateaued since a partial lockdown came into force earlier this month, even though the daily number of new coronavirus cases remains “too high”.
France, too, has seen declines in daily new COVID-19 cases since a second nationwide lockdown began.
Meanwhile, two weeks after warning about a mutated variant of the virus in minks that could threaten the effectiveness of a vaccine, Denmark said the strain had been eradicated.
Yet alarm is rising in Sweden that its no-lockdown approach has failed as its per capita infection rate rises above even that of Britain, with the number of hospital admissions almost doubling each week.
“The situation is serious,” Goran Hansson, a cardiology professor at the Karolinska Institute and head of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, said. “Intensive care units are not at maximum capacity but may become full soon.”
Since the start of the pandemic, the Swedish “experiment” has raised profound questions about the best way to overcome the disease.
Critics believe it is finally clear that Sweden has paid too high a price for too few tangible results.
Now, all but one of Sweden’s 21 regions are in voluntary lockdown, with residents urged to cut social contact by avoiding public transport or travelling out of their area, and public gatherings limited to eight people.