NIAID Director Believes Pfizer Vaccine Trial Success May Boost Public Confidence

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington on Sept. 23, 2020. (Graeme Jennings/Pool via Reuters)

The announcement of Pfizer’s newly developed vaccine trial success rate may allow the public to be more accepting of getting the vaccine, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said.

Pfizer recently announced that the vaccine it had developed had a 90 percent efficacy rate for its trial in a press release on Nov. 9.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of NIAID, participated in a discussion at the Washington National Cathedral on the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Virus response, and during the discussion, brought up the new vaccine being developed by Pfizer and its newly announced trial success.

In previous cases, when first-generation vaccines were developed, they had 50 to 60 percent efficacy rates—even then, when the public took the vaccines, the other 40 to 50 percent of the people might be immune to the vaccine, and for these people, it wouldn’t be effective, Fauci said.

However, this time it would be different, seeing that the first-generation drug developed for the CCP Virus has more than a 90 percent efficacy and success rate.

“What we’re hoping is that those who have vaccine hesitancy, who are skeptical about a vaccine, will see that the efficacy of this is so high that they may change their mind about wanting to get vaccinated,” Fauci said.

Fauci also brought up vaccines developed by other companies that are very similar to that of the one developed in Pfizer, saying that although they haven’t gone through the evaluation yet, there’s a chance they may also have similar efficacy and success rates.

This meant that should the other vaccines prove to be just as effective and safe as Pfizer’s product, such as the one being developed by Moderna, then there would be two vaccines out there for the public to take to protect themselves from the virus.

“We have the capability—what science has done in an unprecedented way—if this were 15 or 20 years ago, it would have taken a few years to get to where we are now,” Fauci said.

This comes as U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that there are several other hurdles to get across before the vaccine can be made publicly available, as the trial is only one of the many steps that the company needs to take, The Epoch Times reported.

Johnson, who has already ordered several million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, said that the trial data and findings need to be peer-reviewed before the vaccine can be approved.