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Real world study finds Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines are 90% effective

In further encouraging news, one dose of either vaccine resulted in 80% protection against infection.

THE PFIZER AND Moderna Covid vaccines were shown to be 90% effective against coronavirus infection – regardless of symptom status – in a real world study involving almost 4,000 American health workers that was published today.

In further encouraging news, partial vaccination with one dose of either vaccine resulted in 80% protection against infection two weeks after the first shot.

The study conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at the effectiveness of the two vaccines among 3,950 participants across six states from 14 December, 2020 to 12 March, 2021.

“This study shows that our national vaccination efforts are working,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

The authorized mRNA Covid-19 vaccines provided early, substantial real-world protection against infection for our nation’s health care personnel, first responders, and other frontline essential workers.

One of the big strengths of the study was that participants self-collected nasal swab tests each week for lab testing, regardless of whether they developed symptoms or not.

This adds to a growing body of evidence that the vaccines halt not just symptomatic disease but infection itself, making them an important tool in stemming the spread of the virus.

The participants included doctors, nurses, first responders and other health care workers from Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Utah. 

Among them, 2,479 (62.8%) received both recommended mRNA doses and 477 (12.1%) received only one dose of mRNA vaccine.

There were three positive cases among the fully immunized, which translated to an incidence rate of 0.04 per 1,000 person-days, contrasted to 0.19 per 1,000 person-days for partially immunized, and 1.38 per 1,000 person-days for the unvaccinated.

After adjusting the model to account for the location, this came out to vaccine effectiveness at 80% for one dose and 90% for two. 

The study’s authors said they could not make product-specific estimates because of the limited number of infections.

The study is ongoing, and scientists will look to sequence the virus in cases where it was able to infect people despite vaccination, to better understand why this happens in some cases.

© – AFP, 2020

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    Mute Joe Johnson
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    Mar 29th 2021, 5:15 PM

    That’s great news if I could get it.

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    Mute Paul O Mahony
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    Mar 29th 2021, 6:45 PM

    @Joe Johnson: Im guessing you are relatively young and your natural immunity is better.

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    Mute Joe Johnson
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    Mar 29th 2021, 6:50 PM

    @Paul O Mahony: No

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    Mute Ger
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    Mar 29th 2021, 5:24 PM

    You only have to look at the drop in infections in the UK to see that the vaccines are having an effect when it comes to blocking infection. Nice to read some good news regarding this whole mess.

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    Mute Derdaly
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    Mar 29th 2021, 5:28 PM

    @Ger: 80% of people fully protected within 2 weeks of first jab, more proof, if needed, to defer second dose and get the primer into as many arms as possible. This is a numbers game, especially in the short term and those numbers are good. Speed trump’s perfection, – WHO

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    Mute Sam Harms
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    Mar 29th 2021, 6:24 PM

    @Derdaly: have the said how long the 80% would last if the second dose was deferred though?

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    Mute Derdaly
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    Mar 29th 2021, 7:00 PM

    @Sam Harms: there’s no information on longevity of either one or two doses. Second dose is more a booster, supercharges the antibodies but there is emerging evidence that a longer gap than 4 weeks has a better effect.
    Canadian study has settled on 16 week gap as being safe and effective.
    It’s hard to argue against getting more people jabbed rather than getting people more jabbed at this stage.

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    Mute David Kelly
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    Mar 29th 2021, 6:10 PM

    More proof that first doses should be given to everyone before second doses

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    Mute John Mc Donagh
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    Mar 29th 2021, 5:22 PM

    Great, unless you live west of the Shannon

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    Mute Eric Vdc
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    Mar 29th 2021, 6:59 PM

    I would suggest the following real world clinical trial – Give the pfizer/morderna jab to 1000 over 75 years old candidates- Inoculate couple of them with Covid and organize a one night bingo gathering contest – Assess the resut

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    Mute William Tallon
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    Mar 29th 2021, 7:26 PM

    @Eric Vdc: Inoculate them against Covid or infect them with Covid?

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