COVID-19 VACCINES: BioNTech CEO believes his company's vaccine is effective against new Covid-19 variants.

Speaking on December 22, 2020 to the German media, CEO of BioNTech, Ugur Sahin expressed confidence that the vaccine his company created in partnership with American company Pfizer, is able to inoculate against the new strains of the coronavirus that have surfaced in the UK, Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands and also South Africa.

Sahin revealed that the UK variant's proteins are 99 per cent the same as the prevailing strains, and therefore BioNTech has “scientific confidence” that its vaccine will be effective. 

COVID-19 VACCINES: Alaskan health care worker hospitalized with severe allergic reaction to the Pfizer vaccine.

 

Within minutes of being inoculated with the first dose (second dose should be taken 21 days after first jab) of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, two health care workers at an Alaskan hospital became ill. The jabs were administered earlier this week, and while one of the health care workers was able to recover within an hour after being treated, the female health care worker experienced a more severe reaction and had to be kept for observation at the hospital for two nights.

Doctors on the case however noted that while her reaction to the vaccine was serious it was not life threatening. 

When asked about her symptoms, the doctors said: She felt flushed within the first 10 minutes of receiving the vaccine Tuesday at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau and later reported symptoms including shortness of breath and elevated heart rate.

The other Bartlett health care worker was treated for less severe symptoms after being injected Wednesday and was subsequently released, the doctors said.