ATHENS — "Our goal is to develop a safe and effective vaccine," Lisa O'Neil, Pfizer's global media relations leader, said on Wednesday in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

Asked whether this vaccine will prove to prevent the disease or even death, she replied: We believe that vaccines are the only long-term solution to end this pandemic. The data makes us optimistic about our candidate vaccine, and brings us one step closer to providing a vaccine that will help prevent the further spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, much remains to be done before we can apply to the regulators for approval. We will continue to research this vaccine for safety and efficacy. The purpose of the vaccine is to protect people from being infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. According to the mid-term analysis, it was found that the candidate vaccine was more than 90 pct effective in preventing COVID-19.

As for the side effects, Pfizer's global media relations leader said that the independent committee evaluating the data in the mid-term analysis, DMC, has not reported any serious safety issues, and recommended that additional data be collected.