JEDDAH — The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine recently approved by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority is not compulsory, said Dr. Mazen Hassanain, managing director of the SaudiVax pharmaceuticals company, on Friday. Dr. Hassanain said he is looking forward to taking the vaccine shot once it arrives in the Kingdom. Dr. Hassanain also said the anxiety over the vaccine is natural as so many people probably for the first time are closely following the developments with regard to the production, clinical trials, and side effects of a vaccine. Additionally, due to multiple sources of information, there is a lot of misinformation that is giving rise to anxiety, and it must be recognized, efforts should be made to calm the people, he said. Hassanein made the remarks on the Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbariya. He also said that the administration of the vaccine will follow the same process as it is done in cases of other vaccines, like research, clinical trials, and side effects, and it will continue even after the vaccine arrives in the Kingdom and given to citizens and residents. He explained that the SFDA will analyze samples of each vaccine shipment before using it to ensure its quality, and this is one of the authority's established procedures and is not new. Dr. Hassanein confirmed the authenticity of the information regarding the storage of the vaccine at a certain temperature inside special refrigerators.
