The news: A “real-world” study of 3,950 people in six states found that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines cut the risk of infection by 90%. The findings are broadly in line with the 95% and 94% efficacy that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines showed, respectively, in their clinical trials.
The details: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study recruited essential workers, including health-care workers, and followed them over a 13-week period from December 2020 to March 2021, requiring them to take weekly tests. Almost 75% of the group received at least one dose of one of the mRNA vaccines. Among the cohort that received both doses, vaccine effectiveness was 90%. For the group that received just one dose, effectiveness was 80% after two weeks. There were 161 covid-19 infections among the unvaccinated group, compared with 16 among those who received one dose, and just three in people who received both doses. There were no covid-19 deaths in the study.
Solid findings: This new study provides yet more promising data on the positive effect vaccines are starting to have on the pandemic. Last month, England’s health authority reported that a single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine cut the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%. Israel, which has vaccinated more than half its population, recently reported that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had 94% efficacy against infection and 92% against severe disease.
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