Dr. Siegel on potential COVID vaccine effectiveness: Unlike annual flu, virus is not 'a moving target'
Pfizer vaccine may be ready by late October if it's effective, CEO says
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel said Monday that the common flu, unlike coronavirus, is a "moving target" that often changes form from year to year, while COVID-19 is more static.
Siegel reacted on "Bill Hemmer Reports" to comments from Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who said there is a "good chance" he will know by late October if the company's potential vaccine will be effective.
"In our best case we have quite a good chance -- more than 60% -- but we will know if the product works or not by the end of October," Bourla said in a recent interview. "It doesn't mean that it works, It means that we will know if it works."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In that regard, Siegel said Bourla told the Food and Drug Administration that 44,000 people will be part of a vaccine test -- meaning 22,000 get the vaccine and 22,000 do not.
He told Hemmer that in the first parts of the clinical trial, the vaccine looked promising and that it produced a "robust immune response in patients" -- but that critics have said it may only be 50 percent effective if approved.
"Let me tell you something. With the flu, we have a virus that's changing all of the time. But with SARS-COVID-2, it seems to be a pretty constant," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If we are not shooting at a moving target here, the chances are this vaccine is far more effective."
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He pointed to how the U.S. stamped out polio via a vaccine developed during the 20th Century, as well as smallpox on a global level -- two viruses that were more unchanging than not.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If we get a really effective vaccine here we can certainly stem the tide of COVID," Siegel said. "I like the number of vaccines that are being looked at and I like what I'm hearing. I think this is a very promising situation."