BioNTech founder suggests vaccine could lead to 'normal winter' in 2021

Ugur Sahin, the co-founder of BioNTech, warned the current winter "will be hard," but the next one could be much smoother "if everything continues to go well" with his company's coronavirus vaccine candidate.

Sahin told the BBC on Sunday that the vaccine, which is being co-developed with Pfizer and was found to be 90 percent effective in an interim trial analysis, likely won't immediately bring down infection numbers if it's unveiled later this year, but he believes "we could have a normal winter" in 2021. The plan, he said, is to deliver 300 million doses worldwide by April, which should begin to curb the spread of the virus, and after that it will be "absolutely essential" to "get a high vaccination rate before autumn/winter next year."

Sahin said he's "confident" that will be the case thanks to the number of vaccine companies helping Pfizer and BioNTech increase the supply. Read more at BBC and Politico. Tim O'Donnell

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