A lot has happened in the last few days in the fight against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for an experimental drug to treat mild to moderate cases of the virus, and preliminary results from Pfizer\u2019s trial show that its vaccine candidate is more than 90 percent effective in\u00a0preventing COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Leading public health experts are also painting a rosier picture. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the country\u2019s top infectious disease expert, told\u00a0CNN\u00a0that the U.S. could have doses of a COVID-19 vaccine ready to administer to people before the end of the year. He also called the Pfizer results a \u201cbig deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
World Health Organization director-general Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus\u00a0tweeted\u00a0about the new vaccine results.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe welcome the encouraging vaccine news from Pfizer & BioNTech & salute all scientists & partners around the who are developing new safe, efficacious tools to beat COVID-19,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe [world] is experiencing unprecedented scientific innovation & collaboration to end the pandemic!\u201d<\/p>\n
It all sounds like good news \u2014 and experts tell Yahoo Life that it is. But there\u2019s a lot to wade through, and it\u2019s difficult to keep track of everything. Here\u2019s where things stand at the moment.<\/p>\n
The Pfizer vaccine<\/p>\n
Pfizer\u00a0announced on Monday\u00a0that its candidate vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection in participants in phase III clinical trials. The study has enrolled 43,538 participants and no serious side effects have been reported. The vaccine uses a newer technology called messenger RNA (mRNA) to prompt an immune response in people who receive the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWith today\u2019s news, we are a significant step closer to providing people around the world with a much-needed breakthrough to help bring an end to this global health crisis. We look forward to sharing additional efficacy and safety data generated from thousands of participants in the coming weeks,\u201d Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chairman and CEO, said in a\u00a0press release. Based on projections, Pfizer says that it expects to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.<\/p>\n
Other vaccines<\/p>\n
There are 11 vaccines in phase III clinical trials, or the final phase, according to\u00a0The New York Times\u2019\u00a0coronavirus vaccine tracker. Like Pfizer, Moderna has a vaccine in phase III \u2014 and it uses similar technology. Fauci told CNN that the results from Pfizer \u201cshows that the mRNA platform actually does work,\u201d and cited Moderna as using similar technology.<\/p>\n
Eli Lilly\u2019s therapy<\/p>\n
On Monday, the FDA granted an\u00a0emergency use authorization\u00a0for Eli Lilly\u2019s monoclonal antibody therapy, bamlanivimab. Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system\u2019s ability to fight off viruses and other harmful agents, the FDA explains. Bamlanivimab specifically targets the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and is designed to block the virus\u2019 attachment and entry into human cells.<\/p>\n
The therapy, which is administered intravenously, is authorized for patients who test positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, who are at least 12 years old, who weigh at least 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds) and who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 or could be hospitalized with the virus.<\/p>\n
It is now available to be distributed and administered for use.<\/p>\n
Other COVID-19 therapeutics<\/p>\n
Adv<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n Currently, the corticosteroid\u00a0dexamethasone\u00a0and anti-viral medication\u00a0remdesivir\u00a0are considered the mainstays of treatment for hospitalized patients with COVID-19, Dr. Richard Watkins, an infectious disease physician in Akron, Ohio, and a professor of medicine at the Northeast Ohio Medical University, tells Yahoo Life.<\/p>\n What do doctors think?<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s light at the end of the tunnel, both for COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics,\u201d Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. \u201cWe\u2019re having some successes, and that\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, also tells Yahoo Life that \u201ceverything looks promising.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEvery day, we continue to learn about how the virus works,\u201d Perry N. Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health, tells Yahoo Life. \u201cAs a result, we are more able to develop treatments to attack the virus, symptoms of the virus, and manifestations of the virus.\u201d<\/p>\n But, despite the advancements, Watkins says it will still be some time before life can return to normal. \u201cIt will be several months, at least,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are lots of hurdles still.\u201d<\/p>\n Schaffner agrees. \u201cThere are many challenges in the implementation of both these therapies and the vaccines, and we\u2019re going to have to deal with those,\u201d he says. \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t get overly excited.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u201cThese developments don\u2019t mean that today we don\u2019t need to do what we were doing yesterday,\u201d Adalja says. \u201cAlthough we have these new things coming, they\u2019re not here yet.\u201d<\/p>\n For the vaccine, Watkins points out that it\u2019s unclear at this point how long immunity will last. Meaning, no one knows right now how often someone will need to get vaccinated to get the proper protection. The Pfizer vaccine also requires two doses, taken three weeks apart. \u201cThat will make compliance with that vaccine a challenge,\u201d Watkins says.<\/p>\n The Pfizer vaccine is also delicate. \u201cIt has very strenuous shipping and handling requirements,\u201d Schaffner says. \u201cIt has to be kept very cold and has to be used very quickly because the vaccine degrades very quickly.\u201d That raises a lot of questions about how, exactly, to distribute the vaccine, including whether people would need to go to a specified location to receive it.<\/p>\n For bamlanivimab, it\u2019s \u201chard to define\u201d who the most at-risk patients are, Schaffner says. Actually administering the medication is difficult, too, he says. \u201cWe do outpatient IV therapy, but those are cancer patients \u2014 you don\u2019t want a lot of people with COVID-19 going to those locations,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd the average doctor\u2019s office is not set up to do IV therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, doctors urge people to be patient, continue to practice known methods of preventing the spread of COVID-19, like wearing masks and practicing social distancing, and know that things may get worse before they get better. \u201cWe are going to have a bad next few months,\u201d Watkins says.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are no magic wands or bullets here,\u201d Schaffner says. \u201cCOVID-19 is not going away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n A lot has happened in the last few days in the fight against COVID-19. The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for an experimental drug to treat mild to moderate cases of the virus, and preliminary results from Pfizer\u2019s trial show that its vaccine candidate is more than 90 percent effective in\u00a0preventing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[4168,4455,4456],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n \t