William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., discusses progress in COVID-19 vaccine development

By Tracy Will • November 13, 2020

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A recent story on Fox 5 News in Washington D.C. featured William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., discussing reports that a COVID-19 vaccine in development with Pfizer was found to be more than 90% effective in a group of clinical trial participants.

"It's big news because it means the vaccine they've developed is effective in blocking COVID from infecting individuals," says Dr. Morice, chair of Mayo Clinic's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories. "And that's how the trial works. You get vaccinated and see if it provides protection for people in their daily life." 

The story also explained next steps and reviewed a potential timeline for the vaccine rollout. "The pharmaceutical companies agreed they would wait a two-month interval after the median number of participants are vaccinated. And they haven't hit that time point yet for this particular vaccine," Dr. Morice says. "I think it will be in third week of November. That's when they'll be able to look and say, 'Are we seeing any safety concerns?'"  

Watch the full story.

Tracy Will

Tracy Will is a senior marketing specialist at Mayo Clinic Laboratories where she covers innovation, specialty testing, and advances in laboratory medicine. Tracy has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2016.