Today, Britain stunned the world by approving a vaccine for emergency use. We bring you a long and detailed update on the vaccine story from around the world.
Let us start by understanding what “Approved for Emergency Use” means
Today, Britain gave Emergency Use Approval to BNT162b2 vaccine developed jointly by two pharmaceutical companies – Pfizer (international presence, headquartered in USA), and BioNTech(German). This vaccine had reported 95% efficacy at the end of its Phase III trials. This means that by next week, Britain will start giving the vaccine to its citizens.
What is going on in the rest of the world?
We help you understand the main milestones of the status of vaccination around the world, and the important developments we may expect later this month.
As you can see, China had its own vaccines that it started administering in July.
In August, Russia made a huge announcement when it registered the Sputnik V vaccine. The claim was of 92% efficacy. India is a part of Phase 3 trials of Sputnik V. The first batch of the vaccine landed in India on Tuesday, November 30th.
As things stand, China, Russia, and Britain have started or will, within one week, start emergency use vaccinations.
The European Union and USA will decide, within this month, whether they will approve Emergency Use.
The other vaccine that has claimed 94.2% efficacy is made by a company called Moderna. Both these companies are waiting to have their vaccines approved.
Since this is the first time that the mRNA technology is being used in vaccination, the whole world is waiting with bated breath.
Here’s wishing everyone the very best of luck as the world begins the next part of its journey with Covid.