Pfizer reveals COVID-19 vaccine is 95% effective; will seek FDA emergency use authorization

Pfizer revealed new numbers from its coronavirus vaccine study, and they're even more promising than the pharmaceutical company's previous announcement.

News 12 Staff

Nov 18, 2020, 11:53 PM

Updated 1,253 days ago

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Pfizer revealed new numbers from its coronavirus vaccine study, and they're even more promising than the pharmaceutical company's previous announcement.
The company has now reported that its vaccine is 95% effective at protecting against COVID-19, based on updated information from its ongoing clinical trial.
The company announced Wednesday that it's just a matter of days before it will seek emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration and shared that it has met the safety requirements needed to get that approval.
Researchers say just eight of its study participants who received the actual vaccine went on to contract COVID-19, and of those eight cases only one was considered severe.
Pfizer also revealed that its MRNA vaccine appears to work best in older patients who are more at risk of dying from coronavirus.
Doctors are calling these developments exciting, but say they won't really speed up when the vaccine might be available to everyone.
"I think it's still going to be spring or later. We need the research ongoing and we need trials ongoing to give us as many great options as possible," says Dr. Stephanie Sterling, infectious disease chief for NYU Langone Hospital.
The latest news from Pfizer comes just two days after Moderna shared promising results from its MRNA vaccine.
The storage requirements for the Pfizer vaccine are also prompting some distribution questions from medical professionals, part of why doctor Sterling says it's encouraging news, but we will need more than two vaccines to overcome this pandemic across the globe.


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