Bill Gates says this developer has the best chance to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine

Bill Gates isn’t buying the idea that the coronavirus vaccine will be available before the end of October, or really the end of the year.

Gates recently told CNBC that the vaccines in development now likely won’t work by the end of 2020 — despite what politicians might say.

• “None of the vaccines are likely to seek approval in the U.S. before the end of October.”

But Gates said one developer will find the vaccine by the beginning of 2021.

• “I do think once you get into, say, December or January, the chances are that at least two or three will (seek approval) — if the effectiveness is there.”
• “And so we have these phase three trials that are going on. The only vaccine that if everything went perfectly, might seek the emergency use license by the end of October, would be Pfizer.”

Pfizer and BioNTech are working together to create a COVID-19 vaccine. BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin told CNN recently that the vaccine will be available late October or the beginning of November — just around Election Day, for those keeping score at home.

• “It has an excellent profile and I consider this vaccine ... near perfect, and which has a near perfect profile,” Sahin said.
• “We don’t see frequent fever. So only a minor proportion of participants in this trial have fever,” Sahin said. “We see also much lower symptoms like headache or like feeling tired. And the symptoms that are observed with such vaccines are temporary, they are usually observed for one or two days and then are gone.”