'Normal life will return by next WINTER': Creator of the Pfizer Covid vaccine says he is 'confident' impact of the jab will begin to kick in during summer month
One of the scientists behind the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine says he's confident that normal life will return by next winter.
Professor Ugur Sahin, chief executive of BioNTech, said it was 'absolutely essential' to have a high vaccination rate before autumn next year to ensure success.
He acknowledged that the next few months will be 'hard' and that the promising preliminary results on the vaccine, created in partnership with Pfizer, will not have an impact on infection numbers in the current wave.
Interim results from the jab were found to be more than 90% effective, the two firms announced last week, but safety and additional efficacy data continue to be collected.
'If everything continues to go well, we will start to deliver the vaccine end of this year, beginning next year,' Prof Sahin told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
'Our goal is to deliver more than 300 million of vaccine doses until April next year, which could allow us to already start to make an impact.
'The bigger impact will happen until summer, the summer will help us anyway because the infection rate will go down in summer.'
He added: 'What is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before autumn/winter next year, so that means all the immunisation, vaccination approaches must be accomplished before next autumn.
'I'm confident that this will happen, because a number of vaccine companies have been asked to increase the supply, and so that we could have a normal winter next year.'
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