Preliminary results have shown a vaccine appears
to prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the vaccine has “cleared a significant hurdle”, but warned it was “very, very early days”. At a Downing Street news conference, Mr Johnson warned people not to “rely on this news as a solution” to the pandemic. Meanwhile, England’s deputy chief medical officer welcomed the news as an “important scientific breakthrough”, but stressed that he did not see a vaccine making a difference to the current wave of the virus. The developers – American firm Pfizer and German manufacturer BioNTech – described it as a “great day for science and humanity”. Their vaccine has been tested on 43,500 people in six countries and no safety concerns have been raised. Global stock markets rocketed in response to the vaccine results. Read more on what the developers have achieved, and who would get the vaccine.
