The Facts About The Two Vaccines For Coronavirus

Early tests have shown two different Coronavirus vaccines are very effective -- one from Pfizer and the other from Moderna. Both have shown at least 90% effectiveness.

Are they safe? When will the public be able to get them?

Here are the known facts about them from PolitiFact.

When drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna announced that new vaccines were highly effective at preventing COVID-19, it raised hopes that the coronavirus pandemic could be nearing its end. 

In a Nov. 9 press release, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech claimed that an early analysis of clinical trial data found that inoculated individuals experienced 90% fewer cases of symptomatic COVID-19 than those who had received a placebo. Just today, Moderna announced that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective, based on an early look at the results from its large, continuing study.

These results surpassed expectations. For months, experts have warned that a new vaccine might only be 60% effective. If Pfizer’s analysis is accurate — and it has yet to produce official scientific documentation —  the new vaccine would offer a level of protection equal to that of highly effective vaccines for diseases such as measles. 

Experts told us that the announcements are cause for optimism. However, the country, and the world, still have a way to go before coronavirus vaccines become available to ordinary Americans. 

Here’s what we know about when the vaccine might be distributed and what that process could look like. 

What’s next for the vaccine?

One of these companies will likely be the first to come up with a vaccine that meets the Food and Drug Administration’s requirements for distribution. 

To get approval from the FDA, drugmakers have to: 

1. Gather two months of safety data on clinical trial participants to gauge whether the treatment has any negative side effects. The company will reach the two-month benchmark this week. 

2. Barring any unexpected developments, companies will then submit their vaccines to the FDA for emergency use authorization, a special provision allowing the use of an unapproved product during a state of emergency.  

3. After the companies submit data to the FDA, the agency will analyze it to see if it’s sufficient to begin distribution. 

4. After approval from the FDA, the vaccine would be assessed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

   What a vaccine rollout might look like

   Pfizer predicts that it will be able to manufacture only 50 million doses for global consumption by the end of the year, enough to vaccinate 25 million people. (The world’s population is about 7.8 billion.) Moderna said it would have 20 million doses ready by the end of 2020. 

   With a limited number of doses available, the eventual rollout of a vaccine would likely consist of two phases: 

   First phase: U.S. health care workers, emergency responders and individuals at higher risk of severe illness would be eligible for vaccination. If all goes according to plan, the first phase will commence sometime in December. 

   Second phase: The vaccine would become available to the broader public. Most experts told us that they expect the second phase to start sometime in April, although the date would vary depending on Pfizer’s vaccine production rates and whether other companies get their vaccines greenlit by the FDA and CDC.