Merkel Puts Hope In BioNTech Vaccine

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has hailed the creation of the first Coronavirus vaccine with regulatory approval, as she met online yesterday with the founders of BioNTech.
BioNTech is the small German firm behind the breakthrough drug.
“When we see how many people are currently dying from the Coronavirus, then, we know how much it can save lives,’’ Merkel said at the beginning of the meeting.
Referring to Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci, the couple that runs BioNTech, Merkel said she was “incredibly” proud that Germany has such researchers.
The young, Mainz-based company, which is working with U.S. Pharma giant Pfizer to develop and deliver the vaccine, has been put very quickly “into the world spotlight,’’ Merkel said.
The vaccine, which is based on mRNA technology that draws on the genetic code of the Coronavirus to train the body’s immune system, has been found to be 95 per cent effective in clinical trials.
Merkel was joined by Health Minister, Jens Spahn and Research Minister Anja Karliczek for the video conference with Sahin and Tureci.
The government has not specified what exactly the participants would discuss during the rest of the meeting.
Germans may be able to receive a Coronavirus vaccination from next week.
The European Medicines Agency has said it will try to give BioNTech/Pfizer’s vaccine the green light on Monday, eight days earlier than it had originally planned.
The country has been busy setting up hundreds of vaccination centres, many of them in repurposed sports stadiums and conference halls.
Germany’s 16 states are preparing for vaccinations to begin on Dec. 27, the city government in Berlin revealed on Wednesday evening.
The vaccine is already being administered in Britain, the U.S., and Canada following emergency approval procedures by their national regulators.
Mexico, Ecuador, and Chile have also given the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine the nod of approval.
Germany is currently recording high daily death tolls, putting pressure on authorities to start vaccinating swiftly.
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the National Agency for Disease Control, reported 698 new deaths yesterday, the second-highest toll since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic.
A record number of 952 deaths were recorded last Wednesday, although that figure may have been inflated due to a delay in reporting in Saxony, currently the country’s worst-hit state.
Over 1.4 million people are known to have caught the virus in Germany, 24,125 of whom had died as of yesterday.