In boost for COVID-19 battle, Pfizer vaccine found 94% effective in real world

[webfact]

In boost for COVID-19 battle, Pfizer vaccine found 94% effective in real world

By Maayan Lubell and Ari Rabinovitch

 

FILE PHOTO: A elderly woman receives a booster shot of her vaccination against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at an assisted living facility, in Netanya, Israel January 19, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo/

 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The first big real-world study of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be independently reviewed shows the shot is highly effective at preventing COVID-19, in a potentially landmark moment for countries desperate to end lockdowns and reopen economies.

 

Up until now, most data on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines has come under controlled conditions in clinical trials, leaving an element of uncertainty over how results would translate into the real world with its unpredictable variables.

 

The research in Israel - two months into one of the world's fastest rollouts, providing a rich source of data - showed two doses of the Pfizer shot cut symptomatic COVID-19 cases by 94% across all age groups, and severe illnesses by nearly as much.

 

The study of about 1.2 million people also showed a single shot was 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic infections after two weeks, according to the data published and peer-reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.

 

The results of the study for the Clalit Research Institute were close to those in clinical trials last year which found two doses were found to be 95% effective.

 

"We were surprised because we expected that in the real-world setting, where cold chain is not maintained perfectly and the population is older and sicker, that you will not get as good results as you got in the controlled clinical trials," senior study author Ran Balicer told Reuters. "But we did and the vaccine worked as well in the real world."

 

"We have shown the vaccine to be as effective in very different sub-groups, in the young and in the old in those with no co-morbidities and in those with few co-morbidities," he added.

 

The study also suggests the vaccine, developed by U.S drugmaker Pfizer and Germany's BioNTech, is effective against the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK. Researchers said they could not provide a specific level of efficacy, but the variant was the dominant version of the virus in Israel at the time of the study.

 

The research did not shed light on how the Pfizer shot will fare against another variant, now dominant in South Africa, that has been shown to reduce the efficacy of other vaccines.

 

'THIS IS MORE GREAT NEWS'

Of the nine million people in Israel, a nation with universal healthcare, nearly half have received a first dose, and a third have received both doses since the rollout began on Dec. 19.

 

This made the country a prime location for a real-world study into the vaccine's ability to stem the pandemic, along with its advanced data capabilities.

 

The study examined about 600,000 vaccinated people against the same sized control group of unvaccinated people. Researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital also collaborated.

 

"This is more great news, confirming that the vaccine is around 90% effective at preventing documented infection of any degree of severity from 7 days after the second dose," said Peter English, a British government consultant in communicable disease control.

 

"Previous recently studied papers from Israel were observational studies. This one used an experimental design known as a case-control study ... giving greater confidence that differences between the groups are due to their vaccination status, and not to some other factor."

 

The study published on Wednesday was the first analysis of a national COVID-19 vaccination strategy to be peer-reviewed. It also offered a more detailed look at how the vaccine was faring at weekly intervals, while matching people who received the shot to unvaccinated individuals with similar medical histories, sex, age and geographical characteristics.

 

Other research centres in Israel, including the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Institute of Technology have shared several studies in recent weeks that show the vaccine to be effective.

 

At least three studies out of Israel have also suggested the vaccine can reduce coronavirus transmission, but the researchers have cautioned that wider studies must be conducted in order to establish clear-cut conclusions.

 

GOT YOUR IMMUNITY PASS?

The Weizmann Institute's latest data shows a dramatic drop in illness - which began this month with the first age group vaccinated, the over-60s - has now extended to the two subsequent groups to have completed both doses.

 

As infections have fallen in Israel, the country has eased its third national lockdown and reopened swathes of its economy including malls, shops, schools and many workplaces in the past two weeks.

 

Recreational venues such as theatres, gyms and hotels opened on Sunday, but are open only to those deemed immune - holders of a "Green Pass", a health ministry document available for download only by people seven days after their second dose or people who have recovered from COVID-19.

 

On Wednesday, Tel Aviv held one of the country's first live concerts after months of gatherings being banned under coronavirus restrictions.

 

"This is so exciting, we are really so happy to be here today. It's unbelievable after one year of staying at home, it's great to be out to see some culture," said 60-year-old Gabi Shamir as she took her seat at the open-air show.

 

Still, the vaccine's efficacy does not mean the country will be pandemic free any time soon. Like elsewhere in the world, a large proportion of the population are under 16 - about a third in Israel - meaning that they cannot yet get vaccinated as there have not been clinical trial results for children.

 

"This is definitely not the end of the pandemic," said Eran Kopel, an epidemiologist at Tel Aviv University. "Once there is a safe vaccine for the children in Israel and all over the world we can then start to say that we could be approaching herd immunity."

 

(Adittional reporting by Rami Amichay in Tel Aviv and Kate Kelland in London; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Pravin Char)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-02-25

 

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[John Drake]

Just underscores the need for Pfizer (and probably Moderna, too) in Thailand, instead of the worthless Sinovac and inferior AZ.

[placeholder]

7 minutes ago, John Drake said:

Just underscores the need for Pfizer (and probably Moderna, too) in Thailand, instead of the worthless Sinovac and inferior AZ.

Nonsense. Both Sinovac and AZ have been extremely effective in reducing the percentage of infected people suffering from serious and life threatening symptoms.

[KhunBENQ]

5 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Nonsense. Both Sinovac and AZ have been extremely effective in reducing the percentage of infected people suffering from serious and life threatening symptoms.

Agree for Astra Zeneca.

Bit skeptic about Sinovac.

 

The next player might be a winner.

Johnson&Johnson, only one shot, more than 80% effective and no extreme storage requirements.

I doubt that BioNTec/Pfizer will make it to Thailand in significant amount.

[John Drake]

37 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Nonsense. Both Sinovac and AZ have been extremely effective in reducing the percentage of infected people suffering from serious and life threatening symptoms.

 

You may get huffy and put your snout in the air and sniff "nonsense." But the BBC says you're wrong. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55967767

[placeholder]

20 minutes ago, John Drake said:

 

You may get huffy and put your snout in the air and sniff "nonsense." But the BBC says you're wrong. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55967767

Did you actually read the article you linked to?  The lead researcher said vaccines should still protect against serious illness. Which is exactly the point I was making.

[John Drake]

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

Did you actually read the article you linked to?  The lead researcher said vaccines should still protect against serious illness. Which is exactly the point I was making.

 

What I said, as opposed to what you fantasize about what I said, is available for all to see in my first post, which is that AZ is inferior, as indeed it is.  As for Sinovac? Are you serious? Nobody but Thailand and a few desperate mugs in Indonesia want the barely effective Chinese vaccine. 

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, John Drake said:

 

What I said, as opposed to what you fantasize about what I said, is available for all to see in my first post, which is that AZ is inferior, as indeed it is.  As for Sinovac? Are you serious? Nobody but Thailand and a few desperate mugs in Indonesia want the barely effective Chinese vaccine. 

Here's what you wrote about these 2 vaccines:

"Just underscores the need for Pfizer (and probably Moderna, too) in Thailand, instead of the worthless Sinovac and inferior AZ."

This is nonsense. 

 

Take whatever COVID vaccine you can get. All of them stop death and hospitalization.

"All seven COVID-19 vaccines that have completed large efficacy trials — Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and Sinovac — appear to be 100% effective for serious complications. Not one vaccinated person has gotten sick enough to require hospitalization. Not a single vaccinated person has died of COVID-19."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/02/12/all-covid-vaccines-stop-death-severe-illness-column/6709455002/

 

In other words, if you get vaccinated with Sinovac or AZ vaccine, the odds of you being hospitalized or dying are virtually zero. So, you can get infected; you may come down with minor or moderate symptoms. But that's all. So, for the sake of not coming down with minor or moderate symptoms, you think it's worth delaying the resumption of normal life in Thailand?  Maybe your personal financial situation is fine, but millions of people in Thailand who are in difficult economic straits would suffer needlessly if they followed your advice.

 

[TKDfella]

Here's another report from Israel via The Lancet,

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-02-pfizer-dose-effective-weeks.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

4 hours ago, John Drake said:

You may get huffy and put your snout in the air and sniff "nonsense." But the BBC says you're wrong. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55967767

 

The BBC link you've posted above is solely discussing the AstraZenica vaccine's lack of effectiveness against the South African variant of the coronavirus.... not its performance against the original strain.

 

And the BBC link doesn't say the AZ vaccine isn't going to work, but rather, the following (protects against severe disease, but not as much against mild disease):

 

"Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine offers "minimal protection" against mild disease from the South Africa variant, scientists say early trials suggest.

...

But Prof Sarah Gilbert, Oxford lead vaccine developer, said vaccines should still protect against severe disease."

 

And as regards the South African variant, the OP article here re the Pfizer vaccine in Israel isn't providing any information at all.

 

"The research did not shed light on how the Pfizer shot will fare against another variant, now dominant in South Africa, that has been shown to reduce the efficacy of other vaccines."

 

At least as regards everything I've read about the original strain of the coronavirus, the AZ vaccine and the other western ones have considerably higher levels of effectiveness, in general, compared to the sparse info that's been released by the Chinese re the Sinovac vaccine.

 

 

[placeholder]

9 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

The BBC link you've posted above is solely discussing the AstraZenica vaccine's lack of effectiveness against the South African variant of the coronavirus.... not its performance against the original strain.

 

And the BBC link doesn't say the AZ vaccine isn't going to work, but rather, the following (protects against severe disease, but not as much against mild disease):

 

"Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine offers "minimal protection" against mild disease from the South Africa variant, scientists say early trials suggest.

...

But Prof Sarah Gilbert, Oxford lead vaccine developer, said vaccines should still protect against severe disease."

 

And as regards the South African variant, the OP article here re the Pfizer vaccine in Israel isn't providing any information at all.

 

"The research did not shed light on how the Pfizer shot will fare against another variant, now dominant in South Africa, that has been shown to reduce the efficacy of other vaccines."

 

At least as regards everything I've read about the original strain of the coronavirus, the AZ vaccine and the other western ones have considerably higher levels of effectiveness, in general, compared to the sparse info that's been released by the Chinese re the Sinovac vaccine.

Your take on the Sinovac vaccine is based a basic misunderstanding of what efficacy means. Efficacy includes all cases with any symptoms including mild ones. Remember that headline about Sinovac showing only 50.4% efficacy in Brazil?

Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective

"But on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of "very mild infections" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.

With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.

But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55642648

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

Take whatever COVID vaccine you can get. All of them stop death and hospitalization.

 

Interesting perspective from some pretty prominent U.S. doctors in the field...

 

Sometimes, it's easy to get caught up in the numbers and statistics.... and lose sight of the forest thru the trees.

 

[Burma Bill]

From photo - what a gay colored mask!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 minutes ago, placeholder said:

With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.

But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55642648

 

I've been reading a lot of the top-tier news media coverage on the various vaccines, and I'll admit with some chagrin, it's often very confusing or at least unclear when the various reports talk about "effectiveness," just what exactly are they meaning... found effective or not at doing what?  Preventing any illness, preventing serious illness, preventing death? Preventing transmission of the virus, etc.

 

As someone with some background in the news media world, I often find myself wishing they'd be more clear in writing just what exactly they're trying to say, and what the actual data is showing.

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[digger70]

7 hours ago, John Drake said:

Just underscores the need for Pfizer (and probably Moderna, too) in Thailand, instead of the worthless Sinovac and inferior AZ.

But  but ,they may be cheaper.  

[Tug]

I’m taking it as another piece of good news and all vaccines provide some level of protection combined with proper safety protocols we will put this scourge behind us stay safe good health!!

[placeholder]

2 hours ago, digger70 said:

But  but ,they may be cheaper.  

But but they will save your life.

[Scott]

1 hour ago, placeholder said:

But but they will save your life.

Yes, they will probably save your life.  

 

This virus is still relatively new and the vaccines are all very new and largely untested in real-life situations.  As time goes by, more and more information will become available.  

 

It's important to remember that vaccines really don't prevent people from getting a virus; they prevent us from getting sick from the virus.  They, hopefully, prevent the virus from actually getting a foothold in your system.  

 

If you have the flu vaccine (or a particularly good natural immunity), you will still get the virus if you are exposed.  Viruses are not somehow stopped or killed in the nostrils.  The difference is, once the virus gets in, the immune response starts immediately, preventing the virus from growing or spreading. 

 

The difference with this virus and the flu, and most other viruses, is that in the flu a person needs to actually be sick to infect others.  This virus appears to have a longer period of asymptomatic time when it can be spread. In short, you are infectious for several days before you get sick. This is the reason for the caution.  People who are vaccinated can and will still get the virus.  The body will start a fast immune response, you may not get sick or show any symptoms, but in the time it takes your body to get rid of the virus, you may be able to spread it. 

 

This is an area where scientists are very cautious.  Only time will tell if this is an area of concern for continued spread of the virus.  

Every vaccine has a percent of people who will still get sick.  The difference is will you feel a little unwell for a day or two or will you end up in the hospital?  Across the board, the vaccines seem to be pointing to you may get sick, but you won't get sick enough to be hospitalized or die.  

 

 

 

[Lokie]

For what its worth in the discussion; I had the AZ vaccine three days ago (In UK) never even felt the needle,  no pain or any side effects, spoke with others who have had Pfizer they report pain in arm area of shot/stiffness and feeling a bit ropey three days after...

 

I waited for the AZ as from what av seen it was developed by traditional methods, Pfizer I believe was developed by synthetic methods, im old fashioned, they still learning about this virus - so I decided I'll go with traditional... Also it appears the AZ-Oxford has released more data in the public domain Re the SA variant strain where Pfizer have not, anyway Im not saying any is better than the other, protection is paramount here... To say any are inferior is complete and utter BoRRocks!! 

[placeholder]

1 hour ago, Scott said:

It's important to remember that vaccines really don't prevent people from getting a virus; they prevent us from getting sick from the virus.  They, hopefully, prevent the virus from actually getting a foothold in your system.  

Actually, at least some covid vaccines may actually prevent infection:

COVID-19 vaccines may prevent infection and not just symptoms, study suggests

Health experts have said that data so far has shown that COVID-19 vaccines prevent symptoms of the virus — but a new study suggests that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines may also prevent infections.

 

A team at the Mayo Clinic health system looked at more than 31,000 people across four states who had received at least one dose of either vaccine — and found their vaccines were upwards of 80% effective in preventing infection 36 days after the first dose.

Vaccine efficacy was 75% 15 days after the first dose, and appeared 89% effective from 36 days after the second dose, according to the research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

https://www.wesh.com/article/covid-19-vaccines-may-prevent-infection-and-not-just-symptoms-study-suggests/35572076#

[Scott]

26 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Actually, at least some covid vaccines may actually prevent infection:

COVID-19 vaccines may prevent infection and not just symptoms, study suggests

Health experts have said that data so far has shown that COVID-19 vaccines prevent symptoms of the virus — but a new study suggests that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines may also prevent infections.

 

A team at the Mayo Clinic health system looked at more than 31,000 people across four states who had received at least one dose of either vaccine — and found their vaccines were upwards of 80% effective in preventing infection 36 days after the first dose.

Vaccine efficacy was 75% 15 days after the first dose, and appeared 89% effective from 36 days after the second dose, according to the research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.

https://www.wesh.com/article/covid-19-vaccines-may-prevent-infection-and-not-just-symptoms-study-suggests/35572076#

That's not exactly how viruses work, but the overall point is to prevent the virus from starting to replicate inside the cells.  That is a daunting task and varies from person to person and vaccine to vaccine.  None of them are 100% effective.  

The point is if you have a very low level, short lived infection, how contagious are you? 

[connda]

After a minimum of 2 year and preferably 5 years long-term study with epidemiological analysis, then I'll believe the efficacy.  Vaccine companies stating their own efficacy is NN% means nothing to me personally.  I'll believe documented efficacy after long-term studies. 

[John Drake]

16 hours ago, placeholder said:

Your take on the Sinovac vaccine is based a basic misunderstanding of what efficacy means. Efficacy includes all cases with any symptoms including mild ones. Remember that headline about Sinovac showing only 50.4% efficacy in Brazil?

Sinovac: Brazil results show Chinese vaccine 50.4% effective

"But on Tuesday they revealed that calculations for this figure did not include data from a group of "very mild infections" among those who received the vaccine that did not require clinical assistance.

With the inclusion of this data, the efficacy rate is now 50.4%, said researchers.

But Butantan stressed that the vaccine is 78% effective in preventing mild cases that needed treatment and 100% effective in staving off moderate to serious cases."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-55642648

 

50.4 percent is the "bare minimum" for approval. 

Quote

"In a country where the Chinese vaccine is the only one available, you either accept it or not,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. "But when you have choices between different vaccines, people are rational. They’re certainly going to choose Western-made vaccines because they’re the No. 1 choice, the data is already available, and they’re safe. China, so far, they haven’t had any systematic data available.”  https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/12/29/asia-pacific/china-coronavirus-vaccines-trust/

 

[spiekerjozef]

I love living in the non-real world.