On November 9 US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech announced that a jointly developed vaccine candidate was effective at preventing more than 90% of test subjects from contracting Covid-19, according to results from the third stage of testing. Two weeks later, additional testing suggested that the efficacy rate was in fact better than initially expected, at 95%. The companies said they were hopeful of securing authorisation to sell and distribute the vaccine – initially in the US – before the end of the month. They projected that they could produce up to 50m doses of the vaccine before the end of the year and an additional 1.3bn in 2021. This was followed on November 16 by news that US biotechnology company Moderna had also produced a vaccine candidate with 95% efficacy. Meanwhile, testing for another vaccine developed in the UK by the University of Oxford, in collaboration with British- Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca, showed effectiveness of 70% – which could be increased as high as 90% by tweaking the dose. Hopes for a faster recovery The news has raised hopes of a quick recovery from both the health-related challenges and the economic impacts of the pandemic. In particular, an effective vaccine is expected to be a significant boon for tourism, which has been badly affected by border closures, travel restrictions and social distancing measures related to Covid-19. Although the situation eased somewhat in developed markets during the middle of the year, many parts of the world are…
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