Air!
By announcing this Monday advanced work on a vaccine that is nearly 90% effective against Covid-19, two pharmaceutical companies, the American Pfizer, and the German BioNTech, have opened the window to a wind that has become rare in recent months: that of optimism.
As the world stock markets soared, already glimpsing - too soon?
- a "happy end" to the most serious health crisis in more than a century, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed an "encouraging" announcement.
Even the two rivals of the White House have kept their disagreements for a tweet;
the outgoing Donald Trump, rejoicing at "excellent news", his successor, Joe Biden, evoking a more reserved "hope".
STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON.
REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE.
SUCH GREAT NEWS!
- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 9, 2020
Statement by President-elect Biden on Pfizer's vaccine progress: pic.twitter.com/eOiLZnqO8N
- Biden-Harris Presidential Transition (@ Transition46) November 9, 2020
The phase 3 trial of BNT162b2, as it is called, began at the end of July.
The two laboratories inoculated their treatment in healthy patients, while another group received a placebo.
In all, more than 40,000 people participated in the test, which concludes with a "vaccine efficacy rate of over 90%", when it is generally estimated that a rate of 60% to 70% would help stem the spread. virus.
The companies plan to deliver up to 50 million doses worldwide in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. The US government has already pre-ordered 100 million.
Europe, 300 million.
This dazzling birth of a cure, less than a year after the disease was identified in China, would be a record, if it comes to an end.
It also has the hope that other vaccines currently on the bench, and based on the same scientific method, will give birth quickly.
According to the WHO, ten clinical trials are currently in phase 3 worldwide.
In this race between scientists, Pfizer and BioNTech have undoubtedly won a round: they are the first to publish the intermediate results of these tests.
But "we must be extremely careful", recommended Monday evening the director general of health, Jérôme Salomon, putting in the balance, facing "good news", a heavy bundle of questions.
The duration of protection remains to be determined
How effective is the injection over time?
The press release from the two laboratories announces "immunity obtained a little over a month after vaccination," explains virologist Yves Gaudin, from the Institute for Integrative Cell Biology (I2BC) in Paris-Saclay.
It is still early to decide on lasting protection.
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In addition, no data is yet communicated on the safety of the vaccine, that is to say the absence of dangerous side effects.
"Even if there will be accelerated procedures for the Covid, we are still far from being put on the market", observes François Alla, professor of public health at the Bordeaux University Hospital (Gironde).
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Finally, once the hurdle of marketing has been crossed, BNT162b2 will still have to win the support of populations confused by the washing machine of contradictory information and truths denied for almost a year on the disease.
"We see in society a great mistrust of government decisions", notes Lise Bourdeau-Lepage, professor of geography at the University of Lyon-3, and author of a study on the effects of confinement on the morale of populations, carried out with 11,000 people.
“The morale of the French is very low, their level of well-being has dropped dramatically.
But it does not say that all this will end with a vaccine, because it is not certain that people will have enough confidence to accept it, ”indicates the geographer, even if, for the moment,“ the health measures are still rather respected ”.
VIDEO. Coronavirus: "The peak of the epidemic is in front of us", says Jérôme Salomon
Hand washing, wearing a mask, distancing remain more essential than ever while, in this second wave, "the peak is in front of us", Jérôme Salomon recalled Monday evening, before breaking down the figures.
The Covid-19 has killed more than 500 people in the past twenty-four hours, a record during the second wave, bringing the number of deaths in France to 40,987 since the start of the crisis.