BioNTech founder says next winter will be ‘normal’ if vaccination rate high enough

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Next winter will see life return to 'normal', according to the founder of BioNTech, Professor Uğur Şahin. The British government claims it will be ready to deliver 40 million doses of the vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer once it is approved and rolled out. BioNTech and Pfizer said their vaccine prevented 90% of people getting coronavirus in the late stages of its trial. Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, recently told the BBC he expects life to be returning to normal in the spring of next year. Prof Uğur Şahin was not quite as optimistic but did say he expects next winter to be 'normal'. "This winter will be hard," he said. "We will not have a big impact on the infection numbers with our vaccine this winter. "If everything continues to go well, we will start to deliver the vaccine... End of this year, beginning of next year. Our goal is to deliver more than 300 million doses until April, which could allow us to start to make an impact. "The bigger impact won't happen until the summer. The summer will help us anyway because the infection rate will go down. "What is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before autumn, winter next year. "All the immunisation approaches must be accomplished before next autumn, and I'm confident this will happen because there are a number of vaccine companies helping us to increase the supply. "So, we could have a normal winter next year." https://twitter.com/BBCPolitics/status/1327909332621680640