First Covid Vaccine Offers 90% Protection

One of the first coronavirus vaccines can prevent over 90 per cent of people from getting Covid-19, findings have shown.

Developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the companies described the news as "a great day for science and humanity" with the news a major breakthrough in defeating the virus which has crippled normality as we know it.

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The new vaccine has currently been tested on 43,500 people in over six countries, with currently no safety concerns raised.

Now, Pfizer and BioNTech are looking to apply for emergency approval so the vaccine can be put into practise by the end on the month.

Two doses, three weeks apart, are needed for the vaccine to be effective. The trials - in US, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa and Turkey - show 90 per cent protection is achieved seven days after the second dose.

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Pfizer believes it will be able to supply 50 million doses by the end of this year, and around 1.3 billion by the end of 2021.

The vaccine is one of 12 in the final stages of testing, but this is the first to have shown proven effective results.

A mix of an effective vaccination, and better treatments, are considered to be the best way of ending the difficulties and restrictions that have been imposed across the world in order to prevent the spread of the highly contagious and potentially deadly coronavirus.

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However, there are currently questions about how long immunity would last from this vaccine.

Dr Albert Bourla, the chairman of Pfizer, said: "We are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis."

Prof Ugur Sahin, one of the founders of BioNTech, described the results as a "milestone".

The UK has already ordered 30 million doses.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called a press conference, which is scheduled to air from 5pm today.

England is currently on lockdown, with the vast majority of stores closed until 2^nd December.

Topics: Life News, Coronavirus, Health, Covid-19

Kimberley Bond

Kim is a journalist at Tyla, and has previously worked at the Evening Standard, Radio Times as well as several national newspapers. A showbiz obsessive and a television fanatic, Kim is particularly interested in celebrity gossip, A-list events and the latest releases on either the big or small screen. Contact her at [email protected]

@0xKimberley