Pfizer on Monday announced that a vaccine candidate for the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide since it spread from China, is more than 90% effective.
The Washington Examienr reported Alberta Bourla, the chief of the company that worked with BioNTech on the project under encouragement from president Donald Trump, said, "Today is a great day for science and humanity. The first set of results from our Phase 3 COVID-19 vaccine trial provides the initial evidence of our vaccine’s ability to prevent COVID-19."
The stock market in the United States immediately exploded, rising nearly 5% to a threshold just below the 30,000 barrier, because of the news, which could indicate a reopening of society and commerce across the country.
The only significant stocks to decline immediately were those like Amazon and Netflix, which thrived on the conditions in the country in which people were essentially locked into their homes.
While business leaders to politicians all were praising the news, which was noted by President Trump, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo condemned it, and said it was "bad news" because it's two months before "Joe Biden takes over."
President Donald J. Trump works in the Presidential Suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020, after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020. (Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)
That's assuming all of the myriad challenges to vote results, based on evidence of Democrat vote fraud in the president race, fail.
Cuomo, whose famously ordered nursing homes in his state to re-admit COVID-19 positive patients, thus spreading the contagion to thousands of seniors at the peak of the pandemic and in whose state was a large percentage of the American death toll from the Chinese virus, said he thinks the Trump administration's plan to distribute the vaccine is flawed.
He claimed the plan to let private providers do the distribution leaves out various communities.
Prompted by network commentator George Stephanopolous, Cuomo explained, "When you deny a problem the way Trump did you can never solve it."
Asked about what Biden would do different, Cuomo instead said, "We can't let this vaccination go forward the way the Trump administration is designing [because] Biden can't undo it two months later."
He said he was talking with other governors about how to "stop it."
!@NYGovCuomo says it’s “bad news” Pfizer’s Covid vaccine came during the Trump Admin; says he’s going to work w/ other governors to “stop” distribution “before it does damage" pic.twitter.com/ULembNWokW
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 9, 2020
The Examiner reported independent data monitoring officials found, from early test data, that "the contrast in caseloads between participants who were given the vaccine and those who were given a placebo 'indicates a vaccine efficacy rate above 90%, at 7 days after the second dose.'"
"This means that protection is achieved 28 days after the initiation of the vaccination, which consists of a 2-dose schedule," a company statement said. "As the study continues, the final vaccine efficacy percentage may vary. The DMC has not reported any serious safety concerns and recommends that the study continue to collect additional safety and efficacy data as planned. The data will be discussed with regulatory authorities worldwide."
Pfizer and BioNTech said they would like to get emergency use authorization, or an EUA, from the Food and Drug Administration once more safety details are seen from a second dose.
That's expected just days from now.
The Examiner explained, "The two drug companies' mRNA-based vaccine showed early promise in July, when the vaccine was shown to be safe in human trials. They found that two rounds of smaller doses led participants to develop more coronavirus antibodies than taking a single higher-dose vaccine. Following those early results, Pfizer and BioNTech were awarded a $1.95 billion contract from the federal government to produce 100 million doses of the vaccine as soon as it is proven to be safe and effective. The contract was part of the Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed vaccine initiative."
Bourla estimated 50 million doses could be ready this year, with 1.3 billion next year.
President Trump called it "such great news."
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