fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on June 30, 2020 in Washington, DC. Top federal health officials discussed efforts for safely getting back to work and school during the coronavirus pandemic.
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  • Pharmaceutical company Pfizer said on Monday its vaccine was found to be more than 90% effective in a successful final stage of clinical trials.
  • Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, called the reported efficacy rate “extraordinary.”
  • While Monday’s result signals a step forward, the vaccine must be approved and widely distributed to the public for life to return to normalcy.

The nation’s leading infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed enthusiasm for the news that Pfizer’s vaccine was found to be more than 90% effective.

Fauci said the reported 90% efficacy of the pharmaceutical company’s vaccine was “just extraordinary” and noted this will  “have a major impact on everything that we do with regard to COVID,” speaking at a Monday morning press briefing for the HIV Prevention Trials Network.

“It’s a really good day for biomedical research and clinical application of biomedical research,” he said, and added “this is very good news looking forward.”

Fauci said these results may indicate that a vaccine developed by Moderna, also an mRNA candidate, could also have positive results since this “validates the mRNA platform.”

He added that this “validates greatly” the spike protein as the immune response target, which is important because it is the target for “virtually every one of the other vaccines” other than the vaccine from Moderna. Fauci told STAT that as a result, this gives much optimism to “what’s going to roll out in the next several months with the other vaccines.”

On Monday, Pfizer announced its experimental coronavirus vaccine was found to be more than 90% effective in its final stage of clinical trials.

While this high efficacy rate shows much optimism for a safe and effective vaccine, the road to normalcy is still afar.

Pfizer said it is awaiting more data to reach the "required safety milestone" before applying for emergency approval which they say they will likely happen later this month.

Even after it is approved, it will take some time until the vaccine is widely available to the public, so people should expect to keep wearing masks and socially distance until enough people are immune to the disease.

President-elect Joe Biden congratulated the development but noted "it will be many more months before there is widespread vaccination in this country."

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