Our vaccine can "bash the virus over the head": says, the scientist behind the first COVID-19 vaccine

The scientist behind the first COVID-19 vaccine says he is confident his product can "bash the virus over the head" and put an end to the pandemic that has held the world hostage in 2020.

In his interview with Guardian, BioNTech's chief executive, Uğur Şahin, said he was optimistic. "If the question is whether we can stop this pandemic with this vaccine, then my answer is: yes because I believe that even protection only from symptomatic infections will have a dramatic effect,"

The German company BioNTech and the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in their press release on Monday had announced that their jointly developed vaccine candidate has proved to be 90% effective in stopping people from falling ill.

They have also pointed out that the trial "has not reported any serious safety concerns" yet. However, the data from the ongoing trials haven't answered the question as to whether the vaccine is effective for those with asymptomatic infections as well.

"Until the trial results were revealed, we weren't sure whether the vaccine would trigger a strong enough reaction from the human immune system. We now know that vaccines can beat this virus," he told The Guardian.

Pfizer is the first firm to have released the promising late-stage trial data of a potential vaccine for Covid-19.

Pfizer is also in talks with Indian authorities to bring the vaccine, called 'BNT162b2', to the country.

Two days after their announcement, The Sputnik V had released interim information which reveals that its vaccine has demonstrated 92 per cent efficacy after the second dose. However, the findings of their trial are not peer-reviewed yet.