2 Billion COVID Shots in Arms So Quickly Is Truly Incredible
Photo by Ricardo Ceppi / Getty ImagesOn Thursday, the planet reached an historic landmark, surpassing two billion recorded doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in 215 countries. I’ve been in public health for 30 years and have never seen anything quite like it—not even the widely successful smallpox or polio vaccination campaigns.After all, the quickest we’ve ever produced a vaccine before this was in nine years, for mumps.Scientists started working on COVID-19 vaccines in January 2020, almost immediately after cases were reported in Wuhan. Chinese scientists fully sequenced the novel coronavirus within two weeks. And they shared it worldwide. COVID-19 vaccines entered phase 3 clinical trials in six months, not the typical years. Vaccines were mass-produced even before proven safe and efficacious—they had to be, to save time. And by Dec. 11, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a novel mRNA technology never before used in human history.Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here
Read More
