{"id":28147,"date":"2020-11-10T14:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T14:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceo-na.com\/?p=28147"},"modified":"2020-11-10T16:31:24","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T16:31:24","slug":"pfizer-vaccine-almost-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/news\/pfizer-vaccine-almost-ready\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Pfizer said its\u00a0COVID vaccine\u00a0was over 90% effective in late-stage clinical trials.<\/p>\n

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Over a three-week period, researchers administered two vaccine doses to 43,538 volunteers; around half received the vaccine, the other half placebos, now, the\u00a0US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0Monday that the coronavirus vaccine it is jointly developing with German company BioNTech is more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease expert, called the preliminary figure “extraordinary<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The news, which finally shed a light that could mean the beginning of the end of the pandemic, drove global stock markets\u00a0through the roof<\/a>\u00a0(except for\u00a0Zoom<\/a>!), and raised hopes around the world. However, despite the good news, an effective vaccine can’t come fast enough, as the U.S. surpassed 10 million coronavirus cases as President-elect Joe Biden\u00a0urged<\/a>\u00a0Americans to practice social distancing and wear masks.<\/p>\n

What does this mean not only for the pandemic, but for the politics around it?<\/strong><\/h1>\n

According to GZERO Media<\/a>, first, Pfizer’s claim is based on an interim analysis of Phase III clinical trials on only\u00a044,000 people<\/a>. We still don’t know if the vaccine will work when tested on a bigger sample size, or if the initial results will hold later on. Second, even if they do, the drug will still have to go through a process of national-level approvals. Third, it will then have to be made accessible to the global population (at the moment,\u00a011 other vaccines<\/a>\u00a0are in Phase III trials;\u00a0Russia<\/a>\u00a0and China have already started administering their own drugs). And fourth, governments will have to convince their citizens to take the vaccine, which only\u00a058 percent of Americans<\/a>\u00a0are willing to do right now amid growing skepticism worldwide.<\/p>\n

In the meantime,\u00a0get ready for some potentially messy vaccine politics in the US and around the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the US reported over 100,000 new coronavirus cases for the\u00a0third day in a row<\/a>, US President Donald Trump\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0out the good news, although it’s unclear how he will proceed on approving a drug. After all, he can’t benefit politically from it after being defeated by Joe Biden in the recent election. Pfizer has avoided the scrum of US presidential politics by\u00a0not signing up<\/a>\u00a0to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s plan to fast-track development, production, and distribution of a vaccine.<\/p>\n

President-elect Biden<\/a>, on the other hand, was\u00a0cautiously optimistic<\/a>\u00a0about the vaccine, setting realistic expectations on when all Americans will be vaccinated. In any case, who would get those doses first \u2014 or at all \u2014 is a major issue. Pfizer CEO Albert Boula raised some eyebrows when he\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it would be available to all US\u00a0citizens<\/em>, potentially leaving out tens of millions of people who live and work in America on visas or green cards.<\/p>\n

Globally, this is a broader consideration.<\/strong>\u00a0More than 170 countries have joined the\u00a0COVAX<\/a>\u00a0global initiative to ensure equitable distribution, but rich countries have been\u00a0allowed<\/a>\u00a0to stockpile hundreds of millions of doses for their own people. Indeed, the European Union, Japan, the US, and the UK\u00a0reserved\u00a0<\/a>a combined 450 million doses months ago of the Pfizer vaccine \u2014 which is not (yet) part of COVAX \u2014 months ago.<\/p>\n

An immediate future in which developed nations get inoculated first while the developing world waits in line would not only prolong the public health and economic challenges of the coronavirus \u2014 it would\u00a0exacerbate global inequality<\/a>\u00a0by slowing the speed at which poorer countries can bounce back.<\/p>\n

The bottom line:\u00a0<\/strong>Promising results for a COVID-19 vaccine are definitely a rare piece of good news in 2020. But the political and logistical challenges of approval and distribution are only just beginning, in the US and around the world.<\/p>\n

Biggest gainers after the news, per Morning Brew<\/a><\/h1>\n

No stocks reacted better to the news than the beaten-down travel, entertainment, and real estate industries.<\/p>\n