New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020nypost.comThe vaccine has been tested on the eld-
erly, the young and the vulnerable, she
says. “They also have robust immune re-
sponses. We can’t for moral reasons expose
people who are severely ill, but we have
people who have cardiological disease,
lung disfunction, cancer, diabetes, obesity.”
They won’t know for months how long
the inoculations will last, or if they will
need to be updated like flu jabs. “We have
Day 80 now, and the immune response is
stable and constant. That is encouraging.”
The vaccine must be kept at minus 94 de-
grees for stability and is expensive, at about
$40 per treatment. “Normally when you are
developing a vaccine, you will have seven
to eight years to do the clinical develop-ment to optimize storage conditions. I
would expect the expense to come down.”M
ORE than 1.2 million people have al-
ready died from COVID-19. The ob-
jective is to develop herd immunity
around the world. This would require peo-
ple to overcome their concerns about the
consequences of being vaccinated. Does
she worry about the anti-vaxers’ fears?
“Our duty is to make sure our data is pre-
sented transparently for everyone to evalu-
ate, to ensure that people can inform them-
selves about our and other vaccines,” she
replies before insisting that the vaccine is
safe and effective. “I would have it, I would
get my family to have it.”There have been reports that Tureci, now
53, wanted to become a nun, but she says
science has always been her “high passion,”
adding, “I think the most noble thing you
can use science and technology for is to
serve the people; that was my motivation.”
Sahin, 55, joins the call and explains that
his motives are similarly altruistic.
“I am driven by curiosity, I am always
asking questions, I want to understand
how things work,” he says. “I work in a
cancer hospital and I had to tell many pa-
tients that we can’t help them any more. As
a scientist I knew that we are not doing ev-
erything that is possible, so we need to do
more. That’s what drives me on.”
And although they clearly love workingtogether, the search for the vaccine has, the
husband admits, taken over their lives.
“We talk at every opportunity,” Sahin
says, but adds that the couple doesn’t re-
sent the blurring of the boundaries be-
tween work and home. “At the end of the
day it is also our passion. We are not im-
portant, it’s the task we are doing.”
They must feel the weight of the world’s
expectations on their shoulders.
“Of course it is a huge responsibility,”
Sahin says.
“What drives us is the knowledge that
there are kids who want to have a normal
life, there’s the mother, the teacher, the old
person being isolated, there is so much
need.” Times of Londonbehind breakthrough COVID vaccine
big-time jab:big-time jab:big-time jab:big-time jab: Ugur Sahin and his Ugur Sahin and his Ugur Sahin and his
partner of 18 years, Ozlem Tureci, know partner of 18 years, Ozlem Tureci, know partner of 18 years, Ozlem Tureci, know partner of 18 years, Ozlem Tureci, know partner of 18 years, Ozlem Tureci, know
the world is waiting on their pharma the world is waiting on their pharma the world is waiting on their pharma
company’s COVID vaccine. “There are company’s COVID vaccine. “There are company’s COVID vaccine. “There are
kids who want to have a better life... kids who want to have a better life...
there is so much need,” Sahin says.outbreak
Get ready to roll up your sleeve for a
COVID-19 shot.
As many as 20 million Americans
could be inoculated against the coro-
navirus before the end of the year —
and the number jumps to 80 million
by March if the government hits the
target deadlines laid out by the vac-
cine campaign’s top scientist.
Researcher Moncef Slaoui’s sched-
ule put the number of monthly vacci-
nes at 25 million to 30 million a
month, starting in January. At that
pace, roughly a fourth of the US popu-
lation could be vaccinated before
spring, Business Insider reported.
Earlier predictions by two other top
officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Health
and Human Services Secretary Alex
Azar, had set April as the rollout date.
First in line will be health-care work-
ers and those at highest risk, such as
seniors with pre-existing conditions.
An advisory panel to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention will
determine the specifics of distribution.
Hitting the target dates is only pos-
sible if regulators approve two vacci-
nes in the works by pharmaceutical
giants Pfizer and Moderna.
Slaoui said this past week that he ex-
pected both companies to ask the
Food and Drug Administration for
emergency-use authorization by early
December. Melanie Gray20M in US
may stick
’em up by
year’s end