Coronavirus vaccine news is no cure for the pandemic recession. Next, policymakers must deliver

Name: Moderna Covid-19 vaccine nearly 95 per cent effective in second promising trial for US drug makers
Uploaded: 2020-11-19T07:15:17.000Z
Duration: 2 min 23 s
Description: Moderna Covid-19 vaccine nearly 95 per cent effective in second promising trial for US drug makers

Euphoria aside, the promise of a Covid-19 vaccine does not undo the damage already caused by the pandemic. Also, there are significant logistical and political hurdles to clear before mass vaccination is possible

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Biological samples are placed in a nitrogen freeze chamber at the Ambroise Pare Clinic in Paris. The vaccine developed by Pfizer must be stored in deep-freezer conditions and requires two doses administered three weeks apart, making it more difficult to deploy the shot effectively. Photo: Bloomberg

Nicholas Spiro

Published: 3:15pm, 19 Nov 2020Updated: 1:04pm, 25 Nov 2020

Hope springs eternal, and it has never been more important than today. The scale of the damage wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic – 56 million cases worldwide, 1.3 million deaths and a global economy that is forecast to shrink 4.4 per cent this year, with 90 million people expected to fall into extreme deprivation, according to the International Monetary Fund – makes the breakthrough in the hunt for an effective vaccine hugely significant.

A series of announcements over the past 10 days, first by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, then by Moderna, that their respective vaccine candidates were found to be 95 per cent effective in preventing infections, have lifted spirits around the world.

Not only has a vaccine against a previously unknown pathogen been developed in less than a year, its efficacy has significantly exceeded expectations. Even a flu jab is only 40 to 60 per cent effective. Make no mistake, the breakthrough is a remarkable scientific feat, accentuated by the promising new technology on which both shots rely.

Yet, while a corner has been turned, there are reasons for caution, both from a medical and logistical standpoint as well as an economic and political one.

The vaccine euphoria that has gripped financial markets is bound to fade, offering a warning to equity investors who are betting on a shift away from stocks that have prospered in the pandemic, led by technology shares, to those that have suffered due to lockdowns and social distancing.

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Moderna Covid-19 vaccine nearly 95 per cent effective in second promising trial for US drug makers

First, it’s still early days as far as the efficacy of a vaccine is concerned. The trial results are based on symptomatic cases – part of what makes Covid-19 so deadly is that many infections are asymptomatic – and it is unclear how successful the two shots are in preventing severe disease.