Back in April, just five months ago, the BBC ran a headline that said there would be ‘a million vaccines by September’.
I didn’t believe it then – it’s now September and it’s turned out to be… not true. Fancy that.
The trouble is, it was reported by the BBC. Rightly or wrongly, we generally believe what we’re told by the BBC – and although the piece itself said there were ‘no guarantees’, the headline went with the million vaccines line.
This is what I wrote back in April – Exit Strategy
And this is what the Guardian wrote just yesterday – Covid vaccine tracker
So far, seven possible vaccines have made it to Phase 3 trials – lots of people are given the vaccine, and lots of people aren’t, and the results of the two groups are compared. Scientists are basically looking to see how effective it is, and also how safe it is. Bearing in mind it’s intended to be given to otherwise healthy people, it has to be very safe indeed.
The next stage is Approval. No vaccine for Covid-19 has reached that stage yet. The big players are the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the EMA (European Medicines Agency). They are the organisations that will approve (or not approve) any new vaccine for use in the US or Europe. Let’s hope they have something to approve, or not approve, before too long – and that they make the right decision.
Back in April, I suggested that maybe, just maybe, we should consider the possibility that there is no effective vaccine out there waiting to be found. There’s no reason why there should be. Far more drugs fail than succeed.
I think we have to be prepared for that.
Scroll all the way down to Follow, Share, Like or Comment on this. And check out my ‘Sixty and Me’ badge.
I always reply to Comments from nice people.
