COVID vaccine trial results: a 'watershed moment'

corona-5174671
corona-5174671

The first effective coronavirus vaccine can prevent more than 90% of people from getting COVID-19, a preliminary analysis has shown. The developers - Pfizer and BioNTech - described it as a "great day for science and humanity."

Professor Daniel Davis

Daniel M. Davis, professor of Immunology at The University of Manchester said: "This is a watershed moment. For the first time, there is evidence that one of the possible vaccines for COVID-19 can protect people from the disease.

"It's still early days, and it is important to remember that there are caveats: we need to be able scrutinise the data independently, and we don’t yet know how long immunity may last for.

"The safety data isn’t yet sufficiently robust so the vaccine can't be formally approved at the moment," he added. "And this type of vaccine also poses particular problems for distribution around the world because it has to be stored at very cold temperatures.

"But despite these issues, this is an enormously thrilling moment. As a scientist, I am nervous of over-hyping a medical breakthrough, but this is genuinely a big moment for humankind. This also bodes very well for other candidate vaccines which are undergoing similar tests in people now. At last, it feels like we are turning a corner."

University of Manchester www.manchester.ac.uk

Related Articles
Most recent Articles

Renishaw highlights career pathways in engineering

There is not one singular blueprint that can lead to a career in the engineering industry. It offers a variety of roles, open to people from diverse backgrounds. To highlight the diversity of skills and experiences in engineering, global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, has created the ‘Employee perspectives’ series.
1 day ago News

Login / Sign up