Early on Thursday morning, the news came: the covid-19 vaccine from the German pharmaceutical company Curevac provides only 47 percent protection against covid-19, according to a preliminary study with 40,000 participants.
The announcement means that it is now uncertain whether the European Medicines Agency will give the green light to the vaccine.
In November, the EU, and thus Sweden, reached an agreement with Curevac for up to 405 million doses.
But the fact that deliveries of the German vaccine now risk missing out is not something that will affect the Swedish vaccination plan, according to Sweden's vaccine coordinator Richard Bergström.
- It probably means nothing because these vaccines would still come too late, Bergström says to SVT Morgonstudion.
Bergström: Hope we avoid
He points out above all that the Curevac vaccine, with about 80,000 doses in an initial stage, would not have arrived in Sweden until August.
By comparison, a total of just over 2.7 million vaccine doses, from Moderna and Pfizer / Biontech, are expected to be delivered to Swedish soil in June.
According to the Public Health Agency's forecast, the Swedish vaccination rate will also be around 75 percent already at the end of July, says Bergström.
- In such a situation, we do not need Curevac.
The vaccine coordinator also says that Sweden currently has an agreement which means that all Swedes can be vaccinated three to four times a year.
- But I hope that we avoid it for many reasons, not least because we want to share with us (of vaccine) to the whole world.
Hear more about how Richard Bergström views the Curevac message in the clip above.