The vaccine is seen by many as the holy grail of the solution to the corona crisis. But if we start vaccinating in January, we still have to be patient. It will be a while before life can return somewhat to normal, say the researcher couple behind the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine.
“Only when sixty to eighty percent of the population is vaccinated, at the end of the summer, in the beginning of autumn, is a return to a more or less normal life possible,” says developer of the vaccine Ugur Sahin. The Telegraph. “The virus will stay with us for the next ten years. We will continue to deal with smaller outbreaks, but without lockdowns. ”
The European EMA agency in Amsterdam and the European Commission approved the BioNTech / Pfizer vaccine on Monday. A hopeful sign. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Israel have already started to vaccinate, and the vaccine will be delivered simultaneously to all EU countries for the next five days. Germany will then immediately start vaccinating, the Netherlands will start on January 8. The effect of those vaccinations will only be visible in “more than three months”, says Sahin.
‘If you look back, it is of course very fast’
State Secretary Raymond Knops (Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations) emphasizes that the number of infections is still too high. That has to be considerably reduced before any relaxation can be considered at all.
“That vaccination will help”, he says in Goedemorgen Nederland on NPO 1. “Not so much who gets vaccinated first, but indeed: have you reached that degree of sixty to eighty percent, and when? The operation intended for this must be carried out as quickly as possible ”, says Knops. “And if you look back, it is of course very fast how quickly that vaccine has been developed. But unfortunately it is not yet the case that we can say: we are going back to normal. ”
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By: Marinka Wagemans
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