(CNN) – The head of the government’s efforts to expand a vaccine opposed to Covid-19 says he expects the vaccine to have efficacy rates “in the order of 90%,” but that there may not be enough vaccine to have. all Americans until the end of next year.
“I think it will be a very effective vaccine. That’s my prediction,” said Moncef Slaoui, lead adviser to Operation Warp Speed. “My non-public opinion, based on my delight and the biology of this virus, I think this vaccine is going to be very effective. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was in 90% [fork].”
Slaoui, an immunologist, has in the past led GlaxoSmithKline’s immunization program, where he led the progression of five new primary vaccines.
He said there would be enough vaccines for all Americans “ideally” until mid-2021, but not until the end of 2021.
Slaoui spoke Thursday with CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, on a scale at a Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial site in Savannah, Georgia. It was his first television interview since arriving at Operation Warp Speed in May.
In June, Dr. Anthony Fauci gave Cohen a less positive prediction of the effectiveness of a Covid-19 vaccine.
“The most productive ever made is measles, which is 97 to 98% effective,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “It would be glorious if we could do it. I don’t think we will. I’d settle for a vaccine that’s 70, 75% effective.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration It has established a uniform decrease for a Covid-19 vaccine, indicating in its rules that the efficacy rate “should be at least 50%”.
Vaccines have different rates of effectiveness. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a comprehensive set of polio vaccines is 99-100% effective; Complete vaccination as opposed to diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough is 80-90% effective, while the flu vaccine is 40-60% effective.
Slaoui added that with a Covid-19 vaccine, we would “possibly want a booster” after the initial vaccination “every year or every two years or every 3 years.”
Slaoui said he expects to have “probably a few tens of millions of doses” of vaccine in December this year or January next year, and that will happen to other high-risk people because “we probably wouldn’t have doses for the entire American population. The first day.”
High-risk individuals include the elderly and those with underlying health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Slaoui said he is “optimistic” that there will be vaccines for all Americans until the end of 2021, but preferably until mid-2021.
“That’s our goal, ” he said.
Operation Warp Speed has a budget of 8 vaccines, Slaoui said.
Five of them are already in phase 3 clinical trials or will begin at the end of September, he said. A Phase 3 test is the last test circular before a vaccine passes through regulators and can be marketed. Phase 3 trials of the Covid-19 vaccine will involve 30,000 subjects examined.
“These are all the other vaccines. They’re moving very fast,” Slaoui said, noting that the virus was only known six months ago. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and as fast as I can remember, from discovery to phase three, it was 4 years.
Vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer are in Phase 3 in the United States, and a vaccine by AstraZeneca is in Phase 3 trials in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa. Phase 3 trials for that vaccine are expected to start in August in the US.
Phase 3 trials for vaccines manufactured through two other corporations, Johnson-Johnson and Novavax, are expected to begin in September, he added.
Slaoui has named the other 3 vaccines that will get Investment from Operation Warp Speed.
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