IOWA CITY, Iowa — Drug company Pfizer announced a breakthrough in their development of a COVID-19 vaccine Monday, with studies showing a 90% success rate.
These results come right on schedule, matching Pfizer's predicted early November timeline.
10% may seem like a high number of inefficient vaccinations, but doctors at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics say a 90% success rate is actually very high, especially for a pandemic setting.
Dr. Patricia Winokur, Executive Dean of the U of I Carver College of Medicine and executive investigator for the UIHC's vaccine trial, says a vaccination for the flu has an efficiency rate of anywhere between 50-70%.
While the news of the high success rate is exciting for him, Dr. Michael Brownlee, Chief Pharmacy Officer at UIHC, stresses that a vaccine won't actually become widespread for a several more months, at the very least.
With that in mind, the community needs to step it up.
"We need continued diligence with wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding large gatherings," Brownlee said.
"We know how hard that can be with the holidays coming up. There's a lot going on in our community, and people are tired of doing everything I just said, but we as healthcare workers depend on our community to help support us too; to help us be ready for the vaccine once it is available."
According to Dr. Winokur, most vaccines are developed over a two-year timeline. In a pandemic, however, that process is sped up to allow the fastest means of distribution possible, which can cause the margin of error to go up.
Until that time comes, however, Dr. Brownlee urges the public to start working to lower the skyrocketing case count across the state, or a vaccine may not be able to be distributed in any meaningful way.
"One of the things that we need help with is that, for us to be able to have the capacity to manage the vaccine, we've got to make sure we have lower cases in the community," Brownlee said.
As case counts continue to rise, so do hospitalizations; in Des Moines, UnityPoint Health hospitals have seen a 25% spike in hospitalizations over the last three days, and are "very full and very busy," nearing their highest capacities, but still accepting patients for now.
