Pharmaceutical company Pfizer is now ready to formally ask
the FDA to approve emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine after the latest trial
found a success rate of 95%.
Pfizer said that the study found no meaningful side effects
from the vaccine and that it is just as effective for people over the age of 65
as it is for younger people.
One of the people who participated in the trial is Jason
Shiffman of Avenel, who says that he volunteered to protect himself and his 88-year-old father who he cares for. He says that he only had mild symptoms
after getting the shot.
“For about a week or so there were a lot of headaches,
redness around the injection site, some nauseousness. But each day it got
better and in a week, it cleared up” he says.
Shiffman says he took an antibody test before the vaccine
and tested negative. After taking the vaccine, his sample came back positive
for antibodies on two separate occasions.
Pfizer expects to produce up to 50 million doses of the vaccine in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion in 2021.