Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Miami Valley experts expressed hope Monday at Pfizer’s announcement that early results indicate its COVID-19 vaccine may be 90% effective but cautioned the public to remember a long road lays ahead before every person gets any approved vaccine.
“The information we got today came from a pharmaceutical company and not a peer-reviewed medical journal that looks at all of the data in detail, so we need to take this with an enormous grain of salt,” said Dr. Glen Solomon, professor and chairman of internal medicine and neurology at Wright State University. “We really have to understand these press releases are designed for the stock market and for shareholders and are not medical information.”
Still, Pfizer’s announcement is “highly encouraging,” said Zach Jenkins, a professor of pharmacy practice at Cedarville University. This is the first “solid data,” he said, from the nearly 40 vaccines that are in clinical trials. Over 200 vaccines are in development worldwide, an impressive feat, Jenkins said.
Pfizer is reporting preliminary results. If any vaccine is approved, it could take a year before it becomes available to the general public after being distributed to higher-risk individuals. Furthermore, many of the frontrunners, including the vaccine being tested by Pfizer, present unique challenges to distribution. Experts said people need to prepare to continue wearing masks and practice social distancing through 2021.
Charles Patterson, Clark County health commissioner, said distributing a vaccine like the one Pfizer is developing would be a “complete and utter nightmare” because the vaccine needs to be stored at about -70°C and requires a second dose.
Dr. Gary LeRoy, associate dean at the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said he hopes a vaccine becomes available that does not require a second dose because it will be difficult to get individuals to return.
