Global Covid

The global Covid-Q9 death toll reached the grim milestone of Q million on September 28.

Emergency approval

Two American companies expect to apply for emergency approval for their Covid-Q9 vaccines by late November as news reports that the US crossed 8 million confirmed cases amid a third surge of its coronavirus epidemic.

Pfizer said on Friday it hopes to move ahead with its vaccine after safety data is available in the third week of November, weeks after the November 3 presidential election.

The announcement means the US could have two vaccines ready by the end of the year, with Massachusetts biotech firm Moderna aiming for November 25 to seek authorization.

“So let me be clear, assuming positive data, Pfizer will apply for Emergency Authorization Use in the US soon after the safety milestone is achieved in the third week of November,” the company’s chairman and chief executive officer Albert Bourla said in an open letter. The news lifted the company’s shares 2 percent in the US.

But experts warn that even when vaccines are approved, it will take many months until they are widely available.

And unlike vaccines against other diseases such as measles, experts believe Covid-Q9 vaccines, when they come, will fall far short of being Q00-percent effective.

‘ No magic bullet’

One bright sign is that Covid-Q9 treatments have improved markedly, and since the cases are more spread out than before, hospitals aren’t being overwhelmed.

Widespread mask use might also mean that when people do get infected, they have less virus in their body which makes them less sick.

While vaccines are a crucial tool against the virus, experts have warned they can’t be a substitute for behavioral measures like masks and social distancing to curb transmission.

“It’s welcome news that there will be one more thing that can help prevent Covid transmission,” said Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious disease doctor and professor at Mayo Clinic.

“But I think we need to be cautious and understand that a vaccine isn’t a magic bullet,” she added.

Pfizer and Moderna, both funded by the US government, launched Phase 3 of their clinical trials at the end of July, and both were producing their doses at the same time.

They aim to deliver tens of millions of doses in the US by the end of the year.

Both are “mRNA vaccines,” an experimental new platform that has never before been fully approved.

They both inject people with the genetic material necessary to grow the “spike protein” of SARS-CoV-2 inside their own cells, thus eliciting an immune response the body will remember when it encounters the real virus.

This effectively turns a person’s own body into a vaccine factory, avoiding the costly and difficult processes that more traditional vaccine production requires.

But while the approach may have helped put Pfizer and Moderna in pole position in the vaccine race, a major drawback is they require deep-freezers for storage, which could limit distribution.