COVID-19 vaccine could come as early as first of the year
By David Money
Staff Writer
County Judge Steve Young delivered some hopeful news at the Commissioners Court meeting Monday in the Milam County Courthouse.
There is a COVID-19 vaccines on its way, he said.
“We don’t know when we will get the vaccine, but we are guessing shortly after the first of the year,’ he said. “The Health Department will administer the vaccine for free. We will get the vaccine from the federal government at no cost.”
He said once the vaccine is available in the county it probably be administed at the sites were COVID-19 testing is currently being done.
“We also plan to continue the testing program through March 15 as well,” he said.
Once the long-waited vaccine is available it will first be given to first responders, medical personnel, those at high risk and then to the general public, he said.
His announcement at the meeting followed a joint one by Pfizer and BioNTech earlier Monday morning.
“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,” said Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and CEO. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen. With today’s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis. We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks.”
After discussion with the FDA, the companies recently elected to drop the 32-case interim analysis and conduct the first interim analysis at a minimum of 62 cases. Upon the conclusion of those discussions, the evaluable case count reached 94 and the Data Monitoring Committees performed the first analysis on all cases. The case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the 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. 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.
“I want to thank the thousands of people who volunteered to participate in the clinical trial, our academic collaborators and investigators at the study sites, and our colleagues and collaborators around the world who are dedicating their time to this crucial endeavor,” added Bourla. “We could not have come this far without the tremendous commitment of everyone involved.”