Viable COVID-19 vaccine waiting for approval
December 10, 2020
COVID-19 has been spreading throughout the world and in that time, vaccines have been in the making to help prevent COVID-19— most with little success. However, recently a potential vaccine has been publicized and may be the answer to COVID-19.
According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) on Dec. 10 to discuss the request for emergency use authorization (EUA) of a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer, Inc. in partnership with BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH.”
The meeting will be webcasted on the FDA website and background materials will be available to the public two business days prior to the meeting. So far, the vaccine is said to be 90% effective from the research collected and no major concerns have popped up.
According to the Pfizer website, “Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis. The analysis evaluated 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in trial participants. The study enrolled 43,538 participants, with 42% having diverse backgrounds, and no serious safety concerns have been observed; Safety and additional efficacy data continue to be collected.”
The safety milestone has been achieved, therefore, the FDA is in the process of the Submission for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to make the vaccine available to the public.
If the vaccine is approved and goes out to the public, there may be a limited supply. However, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Supply will continually increase in the weeks and months that follow.” With the limited supply, it may be recommended which citizens the vaccine should be available to first.
However, the CDC states, “Experts are working on how to distribute these limited vaccines in a fair, ethical, and transparent way. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) gave input to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which will make recommendations to the CDC director once a vaccine(s) is authorized or approved for use.”
More information is yet to come on the possibility of the viable vaccine being made available to the public. However, if approved, the vaccine should be available by the end of 2020.
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