the world's leading scientists have
expressed their delight along with a
strong note of caution
following the news that a vaccine
against coronavirus has proved 90
percent effective
in early results the vaccine developed
by farmer giant pfizer and his partner
beontech
has been tested on forty three and a
half thousand people in six countries
with no safety concerns being raised so
far
england's deputy chief medical officer
jonathan van tam
said he was hopeful that the first
vaccine might be available
by christmas and there would be a much
better horizon in his words by next
spring
prime minister boris johnson said that
one significant hurdle had been cleared
but there were several more to go and
some experts were keen to point out that
this announcement was made
on the basis of very early analysis with
the vaccine
not yet formally approved our medical
editor fergus walsh reports on the
optimism
and the caution which greeted today's
news
this is a huge day for science and
perhaps the world
for the first time a covid19 vaccine has
been shown to protect against the
disease
plenty of caution is needed but the
preliminary results of the pfizer
tech trial are highly promising
there were more than 43 000 volunteers
on the trial which began in july
half got the coronavirus vaccine half a
dummy or placebo jab
interim results showed 94 of the
volunteers
fell ill with covert 19 nearly all in
the non-vaccinated group
as a result pfizer says the vaccine is
more than
90 percent effective it's such a great
there for science and humanity you know
i've never felt
professionally such a moment of joy and
we were just jumping up and down in the
shares of
joy for humanity joyful medical advances
to put an end to this dreadful pandemic
the vaccine uses a tiny amount of the
genetic
sequence of the spike protein which sits
on the surface of coronavirus
synthetic material known as rna is
injected into muscle cells in the arm
this stimulates the creation of
antibodies y-shaped
proteins which should bind on to
coronavirus
preventing future infections killer t
cells are also produced these should
identify and destroy
cells which have become infected
scientists around the world have moved
at an extraordinary pace
to develop coronavirus vaccines there
are 47
in human trials the uk government has
advance orders
for six of them including 40 million
doses
of the pfizer beyond tech vaccine that's
enough to immunise
20 million people as you need two doses
pfizer says by the end of the year 50
million doses will be available globally
but only a minority will come here to
the uk
the government's also ordered a hundred
million doses
of the oxford astrazeneca vaccine we're
still awaiting
their results it's thought around four
million doses will be available here
by the end of the year at the number 10
press briefing there was a sense
of cautious optimism of a significant
moment
in the fight against covid i have to say
that this is really a very important
scientific breakthrough i'm certain of
that
but the prime minister said there were
several hurdles to clear before the
vaccine could be used
and he urged people not to slacken their
resolve
we cannot let our enthusiasm
tonight run away with us folks i'm very
very sorry
uh to say this it's more vital uh than
ever now
that we follow the the basics uh that we
wait and see whether this
uh vaccine lives up to its promise
we continue with the measures we have in
place and many scientists agree
that we can't be sure yet if this
vaccine
is a game changer these are very early
results what we really need to wait for
is the longer term follow-up of all
these participants in the trial
to understand how effective this vaccine
is say four to six months
after receiving the doses pfizer will
apply for emergency authorization for
the vaccine
if regulators give approval the first
doses could be used here before
christmas
a small first step towards ending the
pandemic
and fergus is with me lots of talk about
uh theories based on the results and of
course lots of talk about
being careful and caution where's the
balance for you fergus
well it's a rare moment hugh that i've
been able to sit here throughout this
pandemic and give you some
really good news and that's one of those
occasions these results
really are very promising indeed and
they all go well
for other coronavirus vaccines that have
used the same approach this
spike protein to build immunity
but the results though promising are
very early what i need to know
is does the vaccine we know it stops
people
from getting symptoms and falling ill
but does it go further does it stop
all infection completely including
asymptomatic infection that would be
hugely important in building up what we
call
herd immunity now we also don't know how
long
any immunity will last we may need to
have booster vaccines
and we don't have the crucial safety
data
given all of those conditions that you
just mentioned what does the path ahead
look like in the next few months
well if it's approved and that's a big
if we might get a few million doses
of this vaccine before the end of the
year it needs to be stored at
minus 80 degrees so rollout won't be
straightforward
first in line would be older residents
of care homes and care home staff
and then the over 80s and frontline
health workers
and then progressively younger people we
shouldn't
expect this vaccine to change the way we
live this winter
we're not out of the woods yet but we
might finally
have found the right path fergus many
thanks once again
uh fergus walsh our medical editor there
with the latest thoughts on today's news
and
for some more reaction uh let's talk
about the financial markets because
they climbed following today's
announcement by pfizer
in london the 100 share index closed
almost five percent higher
with similar increases across europe
among the companies to benefit were
airlines and hotels and travel companies
which have been hit hard by the pandemic
our business editor simon jack
is in central london so simon to what
extent was the talk of caution
in downing street reflected on the
financial markets
not really at all hugh i think that
caution was not the word
euphoria we saw some incredible moves in
share prices today the parent company
of british airways up 26 pub companies
like mitchells and butler
up 26 easyjet up 33 incredible moves but
remember these are some of the stocks
that have been
battered the most on the way down by the
virus the market as you said on the
whole was up five percent and that was
because
there were some losers the so-called
stay-at-home stocks that have thrived
during lockdowns things like for example
every office
workers new best friend zoom that was
down 15
and ocado the online delivery company
down 9
but overall the point is this is about
sentiment markets just need to believe
that tomorrow
is going to be a little bit better than
today and that delivered
today's news delivered a syringe full of
that kind of optimism
they know that this is not beaten yet
but the point is it's beat
a bull that is what the markets are
focusing on and before long they'll have
something else to worry about but today
euphoria a very significant day in the
financial markets
simon many thanks again simon jack there
with the latest on what's happened on
the
financial markets today