Pfizer to deliver through COVAX some vaccines pledged to poorer nations

BRUSSELS: Pfizer and BionTech will deliver through the international vaccine-sharing facility COVAX some of the 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses it announced on Friday as new supplies for low- and middle-income countries.

The doses will be allocated “through bilateral agreements, agreements with supranational organizations as well as our partnership with COVAX,” a Pfizer spokesman said.

Earlier on Friday a BioNTech spokeswoman said: “we are currently still evaluating this.”

Q&A about Pfizer’s COVID vaccine

What are the ingredients in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine?

The ingredients are mRNA, lipids (hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-diyl)bis(hexyldecanoate), [(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide, Distearoyl-sn-glycero-phosphocholine, and cholesterol), potassium chloride, monobasic potassium phosphate, sodium chloride, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and sucrose.

How does an mRNA vaccine work?

mRNA, delivered to your body’s cells by lipid nanoparticles, instructs the cells to generate the spike protein found on the surface of the novel coronavirus that initiates infection.1,2 Instructing cells to generate the spike protein spurs an immune response, including generation of antibodies specific to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

mRNA vaccines do not contain any virus particles, meaning that they don’t contain weakened or dead parts of a virus or bacterium.

Do mRNA vaccines change a person’s DNA?

mRNA is a transient carrier of information that does not integrate into human DNA. mRNA does not enter a cell’s nucleus, which is where our DNA is kept.

Leave a Comment