Good news: 90% effective coronavirus vaccine could be rolled out by Christmas

Finally, some good news.

The prospect of life returning to something like normality is now closer than ever before after interim results from a large-scale Pfizer/BioNTech trial show that their candidate Covid-19 vaccine is 90% effective.

The third phase of the trial involved giving 43,538 participants two doses of either the immunisation or a placebo. Only 94 people developed coronavirus within 28 days of their jabs. No serious side effects have been reported.

Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine is one of many being developed around the world. The UK government has hedged its bets, pre-ordering 340 million doses of different Covid-19 vaccinations – the highest number per capita of any country – from six manufacturers.

The hope was that at least one would prove effective. It now looks as if the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the most promising. The companies say that 50 million doses could be produced by the end of 2020 and 1.3 billion by the end of 2021. The UK government has ordered 40 million doses, 10 million of which will be available by the end of the year if regulators approve the vaccine.

“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” said Pfizer chairman and chief executive, Dr Albert Bourla. “With today’s news, 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.

“While we are all in the midst of a second wave and many of us in lockdown, we appreciate even more how important this milestone is on our path towards ending this pandemic and for all of us to regain a sense of normality,” he added.

A vaccine that is 90% effective is more than many in the scientific community were daring to hope for. Regulators have said that they would be prepared to approve vaccines that are just 50% effective and an efficacy rate of 60%, similar to the flu vaccine, was thought of as being a reasonable best case scenario.

Unknowns still remain. How long immunity might last is uncertain. And because the data is yet to be peer reviewed the projection of the efficacy rate is subject to change. The trial will continue until 164 infections have been reported which is expected to be by early December. At this point, regulators will have a much better idea of the vaccine’s efficacy.

Despite these caveats there is, possibly for the first time since the pandemic began, a genuine sense of optimism that there is light at the end of the tunnel.