Phew, what a way to start the week. We on the healthcare desk have been spending most of our waking hours thinking of all the implications of Pfizer’s announcement that its vaccine works at preventing COVID-19.
It was my first day waking up in Mountain Time (I’ve landed in Denver!), and let me tell you, I’m hoping there won’t be too many more 4:30 a.m. days in my future.
A health care worker injects a patient with a syringe of the phase 3 Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine trial in Turkey in October 2020. Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The COVID-19 shot marks an unprecedented scientific accomplishment: crafting and testing a vaccine in record time. Vaccine research has historically been a multi-year process.
New England insurer Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is partnering with Doctor On Demand to launch a new kind of health plan that encourages members to get virtual primary care.
The new Harvard Pilgrim plan will be offered to large employers in Connecticut and will cost about 5% to 10% less than other plans with similar designs.
A photo illustration show a syringe. Argentina was selected to test a vaccine against COVID-19, it is estimated that the clinical phases will begin in August. Carol Smiljan/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Pfizer's coronavirus-vaccine candidate succeeded in the last stage of clinical trials, the New York drugmaker said Monday.
While Pfizer said the results showed its vaccine was more than 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, the company did not release data from the interim analysis.
William Haseltine, a longtime biotech executive and infectious-disease expert, told Business Insider that while this was "very welcome news," he also wanted to see the data.
