When the danger of the new COVID infection was acknowledged at the beginning of 2020, diverse companies started working on vaccines. Pfizer was one of the leading pharmaceutical organizations that came up with an effective vaccine, which will be used in the UK and the USA, and later other countries in December 2020 (Hopkins Tanne, 2020). The company emphasizes that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved the vaccine (Pfizer, 2020). However, Pfizer’s vaccine has been authorized for emergency utilization by the FDA due to the urgency of the problem and related negative consequences it causes (FDA, 2020). Mahase (2020b) note that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK authorized the vaccine. The researcher adds that the MHRA claims that people with severe allergic reactions to the components of the vaccines (as well as other elements) should not receive the medicine (Mahase, 2020a). The research of such reactions as well as side effects and adverse outcomes is ongoing.
The vaccination process consists of two shots provided 21 days apart (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020). It has been found that the efficacy of the vaccine after the first shot is approximately 52%, while its effectiveness after the second shot reaches around 95% (Mahase, 2020c). One of the peculiarities of the Pfizer vaccine is its storage temperature of -70° C, which makes it less appropriate for low-income countries and communities (Mahase, 2020d). At that, the vaccine is effective in people older than 16 years old. The implemented trials suggest that vaccinated people were considerably less likely to develop serious adverse outcomes, although some cases of serious health issues or even deaths were documented (CDC, 2020). Since the effectiveness of Pfizer is over 95%, researchers and practitioners expect that it will contribute significantly to the effort aimed at addressing the COVID-pandemic.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Information about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Web.
Hopkins Tanne, J. (2020). Covid-19: FDA panel votes to authorise Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. BMJ, m4799.
Mahase, E. (2020a). Covid-19: People with history of significant allergic reactions should not receive Pfizer vaccine, says regulator. BMJ, 371.
Mahase, E. (2020b). Covid-19: Pfizer vaccine efficacy was 52% after first dose and 95% after second dose, paper shows. BMJ, 371.
Mahase, E. (2020c). Covid-19: UK approves Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine with rollout due to start next week. BMJ, 371.
Mahase, E. (2020d). Covid-19: What do we know about the late stage vaccine candidates? BMJ, 371.
Pfizer. (2020). Coronavirus scientific resources. Web.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2020). Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Web.