Healthcare stocks and ETFs are continuing to outperform as investors are optimistic about an upcoming vaccine for the coronavirus, which has been a blight on the globe since early this year.
There has been some debate as to exactly when the vaccines will be available however. President Trump said on that vaccine deliveries will begin “in the next week or the week after,” while director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research a day earlier suggested a dramatically different time frame.
“It will be a matter of weeks. It could be from days to weeks” after the December 10 meeting, according to Dr. Peter Marks.
“I can’t give you an exact date that we’re going to have an emergency use authorization issued because we have to do it right,” the FDA official said Wednesday.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will discuss at the meeting the application from Pfizer.
Vaccinations will begin in the US “towards the latter part of December,” according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
While the timeframe has yet to be determined, that hasn’t stymied investors from piling into healthcare and biotech stocks and ETFs, energized by news of up to 95% efficacy rates for vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
Healthcare pundits and lawmakers are still concerned however, aware that the virus is extremely deadly and we do not have a vaccine yet.
“So, we’ll be seeing close to 4,000 deaths a day, which is how you get another 60,000 deaths in only about 20 days,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington University, said Wednesday.
In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice has begged residents in recent weeks to donface coverings, saying masks are “really the only bullet in the gun.”
“If you’re inconvenienced, if you don’t believe in it, please wear it … what’s the downside,” Justice said in a news conference this week. “Look, we’re not one to take anybody’s rights. My good lord, I get it wholeheartedly, we don’t want to do that in any way. But you gotta help me.”
It’s the type of sentiment that needs to be underscored by leaders across the country, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of tropical medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, explained.
“Keep saying it every day and hope that some people actually start to believe it. That’s our only hope at this point. We’ve got to limit those surges, and we need those local leaders to really step up, so this is absolutely vital,” Hotez added.
Although the experts are aware a vaccine is in the works, their goal as many lives as possible.
“It’s a matter of keeping your mother, your father, your brother, your sister alive between now and then,” Hotez added. “If we could just get those messages out.”
Meanwhile, in addition to IBB, investors looking to participate in the biotech boom, can look into SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (XBI), VanEck Vectors Biotech ETF (BBH), and Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF (CNCR).
For more market trends, visit ETF Trends.
