Epigraph:

Every human life is precious and sacred and saving one is like saving the whole of humanity. (Al Quran 5:32/33)

Source: BBC

The impact of a new Covid vaccine will kick in significantly over summer and life should be back to normal by next winter, one of its creators has said.

Prof Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, said this winter would still be hard as the vaccine would not have a big impact on infection numbers.

Last week, BioNTech and co-developers Pfizer said preliminary analysis showed their vaccine could prevent more than 90% of people from getting Covid-19.

About 43,000 people took part in tests.

The UK is expected to get 10 million doses by the end of the year, with a further 30 million doses already ordered. The vaccine is given in two doses, three weeks apart.

Older residents and staff in care homes are likely to be prioritised, followed by health workers and the over-80s. People would then be ranked by age.

In an interview on BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Prof Sahin said he was confident the vaccine would reduce transmission between people as well as stop symptoms developing in someone who has had the vaccine.

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Suggested reading about Ugur Sahin:

Uğur Şahin (Turkish: [u.ˈuɾ ʃɑ.ˈhin]; born 1965) is a Turkish-born^[1] German^[2]immunologist and physician. He is a professor of oncology at the University of Mainz and the chief executive and co-founder with his wife, Özlem Türeci, of biotech company BioNTech.^[3][4][5][6] He and his spouse are among the hundred wealthiest people in Germany.^[7]

Şahin was born in Iskenderun, Turkey. When he was four years old his family immigrated to Germany, where his father worked in a Ford car factory.^[8] He studied medicine at the University of Cologne, graduating in 1990, and obtained a PhD from the same university in 1993. Following an eight-year residency at the Saarland University Hospital, he joined the faculty of the University of Mainz in 2000, where he became a professor in 2006.^[9]

In addition to his role as a professor and practicing physician at the University of Mainz Hospital, Şahin has founded or been involved in numerous companies over the course of his career. In 2001 he founded Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, which developed cancer immunotherapies^[10] and was purchased by Astellas Pharma in 2016.^[11] In 2019, Sahin was awarded the Mustafa Prize, a biennial Iranian prize for Muslims in science and technology.^[12]