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The next few months will still be tough as cases of the virus continue to set new daily records in the United States, an infectious disease doctor said this week despite promising news of vaccine trials.
This is because a vaccine will not be available in time to stop the flood of cases that is likely to occur as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced Monday that their coronavirus vaccine is over 90% effective in preventing the disease.
“What we’re hearing and seeing is this is promising news, but it’s not the end all, it’s all,” said Dr Syra Madad, senior director of the Special Pathogens Program at system-wide at New York City Health + Hospitals.
There is a schedule for when the vaccine will be available and when it can be administered, she told CNBC “Street Signs Asia” on Tuesday. “There is still time until then, which means we have a few very difficult months ahead of us.”
More than 50.9 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, including 10.1 million in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Cases have increased in recent weeks as the weather cools and medical experts have warned the situation could get worse.
Madad said pharmaceutical companies have said vaccines could be available by the end of 2020 for priority groups such as healthcare workers, but the public will not yet have access to them.
“We’re not really going to see the effectiveness of these vaccines show in the general population until the second quarter of next year, so we still have a few months left,” she says.
“It’s a process that’s going to follow a pretty quick schedule, but it’s definitely not fast enough, with the months ahead and the number of cases we are seeing around the world increasing.”
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