Coronavirus: Vaccine will end pandemic, says billionaire scientist
The genius behind the breakthrough COVID-19 vaccine says it will ‘bash the virus over the head’ and put an end to the global fight against the disease.
Coronavirus
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The billionaire scientist behind the breakthrough COVID-19 vaccine says it will bring an end to the pandemic.
As US President Donald Trump announced the vaccine would be rolled out in America from December, Uğur Şahin — the 55-year-old CEO of BioNTech, the company that has manufactured the vaccine with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, believes it is set to be a sure-fire success.
“If the question is whether we can stop this pandemic with this vaccine, then my answer is: yes, because I believe that even protection only from symptomatic infections will have a dramatic effect,” Mr Şahin said, the New York Post reported.
According to the leading scientific figure, the vaccine attacks the virus in a number of ways.
“The vaccine hinders COVID-19 from gaining access to our cells. But even if the virus manages to find a way in, then the T-cells bash it over the head and eliminate it. We have trained the immune system very well to perfect these two defensive moves. We now know that the virus can’t defend itself against these mechanisms,” he said.
“We now know that vaccines can beat this virus.”
Those who receive the vaccine will have immunity for up to 12 months, said Mr Şahin, whose personal wealth is estimated to be around $US4.5 billion ($A6.2 billion).
Earlier this week, BioNTech and Pfizer announced their vaccine candidate was 90 per cent effective at preventing people from becoming sick with the virus during phase 3 trials.
Mr Şahin comments came as Mr Trump said the vaccine would be provided free of charge to all Americans as part of Operation Warp Speed and that it would be available to the entire US population by April, except for New York City, where Mr Trump claimed Governor Andrew Cuomo had blocked authorisation.
“The vaccine will be provided free of charge, we will work to secure emergency use authorisations and it will be approved very quickly,” Mr Trump said.
“Operation Warp Speed is unequalled and unrivalled anywhere else in the world.
“This far exceeds any and all expectations. Our investment will make it possible for the vaccine to be provided by Pfizer free of charge.”
Those most vulnerable to the virus, including the elderly, will be the first to receive the vaccine at the end of the year.
NSW VIRUS FEARS AS RESIDENTS FLEE MELBOURNE
NSW Health is trying to track down the 455 people who have recently arrived in Australia from New Zealand after a new COVID-19 case emerged in Auckland.
The passengers, who have arrived in Australia since November 5, have all been sent a message with details about the Auckland venues linked to the new case. They’ve also been provided with instructions on how to monitor for even symptoms and to get tested and isolate if they begin to feel unwell.
Passengers who landed in Sydney from New Zealand on Friday night were also informed, but none reported having been at any of the venues or had any symptoms.
Airlines will not allow passengers to leave New Zealand in the future if they have attended any of these venues.
The venues included a restaurant, clothing store and an apartment block.
New Zealand’s Minister of COVID-19 Response, Chris Hipkins, said that the ill woman was a student based in Auckland, and that her case had been directly linked to that of a Defence Force staff member who had spent time near where the woman worked.
It was reported that the woman told her boss she felt unwell, but was allegedly told to come to work.
“My message to all employers, up and down the country, is that if someone rings in sick and says ‘I need to stay home’, well, do everything you can to support them to do that,” Mr Hipkins said.
Mr Hipkins said he is hopeful a lockdown can be avoided after the new case emerged.
That news came as NSW recorded a week with no cases of community transmission and Melbourne residents fled the city for regional areas, for the first weekend on which wider travel bans have been lifted.
It is first weekend the city have been open to wider travel since the “ring of steel” prevented Melbourne residents from leaving the metropolitan area.
The Channel 7 News helicopter captured the slow-moving line of traffic making its way into regional Victoria about 6pm on Friday.
TV coverage broadcast footage of traffic jams on the way out of the city as residents took the opportunity for a weekend away after being stuck in their homes for months.
Victorians had been subject to a ban on travelling more than 25 kilometres from their homes, and a five kilometre ban before that.
There was also a general ban on Melbourne residents going into regional Victoria without an approved reason.
But the “ring of steel” was lifted on Monday.
PM: ALL BORDERS TO OPEN BY XMAS, EXCEPT WA
Where you will be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine has been revealed, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison said state borders except WA will be open by Christmas.
But he warned there will be no large-scale opening to other low COVID-risk countries in the immediate future “we’re not going to compromise on the safety side”.
The national vaccine rollout plan was revealed following the National Cabinet meeting today.
It was also revealed that Australia’s review into its national contract tracing and outbreak containment system will be shared with US President-elect Joe Biden, at his request after his talk with Mr Morrison on Thursday.
It reiterated that the first people to receive the jab will be health and aged care workers, vulnerable Australians including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people, the elderly and those with disabilities, as well as essential service personal and “key positions required for societal functioning”.
Locations of where people will be able to get the vaccine now include GP clinics, fever clinics, dedicated vaccine clinics to be set-up, some workplace vaccinations in high-risk environments like hospitals as well as nurse vaccinators trained up and sent to aged care facilities.
It is also possible they will be administered at pharmacies and schools as the rollout continues.
“To achieve population wide coverage it is likely that all or most of the above will need to be utilised over several months,” the rollout plan states.
“Locations that have medical practitioners on-site are preferred for the first three to six months of the roll out of any COVID-19 vaccine in case of adverse events.”
Mr Morrison stressed the vaccine would not be mandatory, but encouraged Australians to take one up, urging them not to listen to misinformation.
“You don’t go to Doctor Google, you go to your doctor when it comes to these things,” he said.
“There are no short cuts here. There are no lower benchmarks that apply to this vaccine.
“It’s a very important vaccine for the country and for everybody’s health, but we will be applying the legal requirements that are there for people’s protection.”
Despite recent tensions between the Queensland and NSW premiers over the sunshine state’s border, Mr Morrison said he had an agreement from both that they would be open by Christmas.
“They both joined the meeting today very productively and very positively,” he said.
“The timing of that has always been up to the individual premiers within their jurisdictions. The Federation is still the Federation.”
The Prime Minister also announced that after two weeks of no new cases, Victoria would join other states and territories in quarantining stranded Australians returning from overseas.
“We need to use every available space that we have in quarantine, and it is not simply a matter of other rooms and hotels to do it, there is also the police, the support that is needed to properly run quarantine and the help and support that is needed in addition to that,” Mr Morrison said.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Professor Paul Kelly said that while the development of a vaccine is promising, “there are no short cuts to this. It’s going fast, that’s true, but all of the processes for regulation will be there.”
NEW YORK FACING FRESH CRISIS
Bars and restaurants in New York shut early on Friday (local time) as part of fresh measures designed to slow surging new coronavirus infections in the United States as hospitals in many European countries fill up with new patients.
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that all establishments licensed to sell alcohol, including bars and restaurants, should close at 10pm (2pm AEDT).
It comes as the city’s schools are facing another complete shutdown as cases spike.
Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened to close New York City schools if the infection rate continues to rise.
Mr De Blasio said he’ll move swiftly if the positivity rate goes above three per cent, according to CBS2 in the US. On Friday (local time), it sat at 2.6 per cent.
“If any day we see in the morning the indicators come out and have reached that level then we’ll move immediately the next day schools will be shut down,” Mr De Blasio said.
The United States and parts of Europe are recording higher infection and hospitalisation numbers than they had during the first wave in March and April.
With daily cases nationwide averaging more than 125,000 in the US, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he may issue stay-at-home orders for Chicago and the rest of the state if new infections continue their current trend.
“With every fibre of my being I do not want us to get there,” said Mr Pritzker.
“But right now that seems like where we are heading.”
Chicago has issued a non-mandatory stay-at-home advisory because its hospitals serving the poorest communities are filling to breaking point.
Hospitals are also treating more patients in France than they did in April, while Serbia’s capital Belgrade has started shipping its COVID-19 cases to other cities because its beds are all full.
“We are now facing the most difficult moment of the pandemic,” neighbouring Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
The latest wave of shutdowns and stay-at-home orders come at a time when politicians are worried about how long they can keep people cooped up at home.
“COVID fatigue is definitely setting in,” Newark mayor Ras Baraka said after imposing a night-time curfew on Thursday on his city on the edge of New York.
An Ifop survey in France showed 60 per cent of respondents admitting to flouting rules at least once by making up a false excuse to go out or meeting up with family and friends.
Greece decided on Friday to impose a night-time curfew after its second-largest city of Thessaloniki saw 32 per cent of those tested show a positive result.
Neighbouring Turkey has issued a nationwide ban on smoking in the streets as a precaution because lighting up forces people to take off their masks.
And Portugal has extended work-from-home orders to roughly three-quarters of its population.
As well as worries about mental health and compliance, governments are also anxious about now how long these curbs can last without devastating economies that had only begun to stir back to life.
Capital Economics noted that French President Emmanuel Macron had promised last month to lift restrictions once new daily infection numbers fall from the current 30,000-40,000 to just 5000.
“On that basis, if cases fall by the same rate now, France’s lockdown could last for over two months,” the consultancy said in a research note.
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