A leading coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by Pfizer and BioNTech will be submitted for regulatory approval “within days,” the companies announced Wednesday, after their final analysis suggested the drug was even more effective than previously thought.
The U.S. pharma giant and its German partner said their Phase 3 trial was now complete and that it found the vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 — up from the 90 percent announced last week.
(Via Hot Air Headlines) That number represents over forty thousand adults in that stage. Side effects were remarkably mild: a small percentage reported fatigue or headaches. …I can live with either, thanks. Pzifer says it can get 50 million doses out by the end of the year and 1.3 billion in 2021; if Moderna’s vaccine (which needs only standard refrigeration) also works out, we’re in a good position to have the coronavirus suddenly slam into a brick wall. Which would a no-fooling good thing to have.
Here’s hoping. I’m not really *thrilled* to go back to the office, but I’ve also had about enough of full-time quarantining.
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My cats may be a bit upset, though.
Moderna reported that it’s vaccine was 94.5% effective, making it a better choice than Pfizer’s (even if you don’t include the negative 100 and something temperature that Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be stored at). And then immediately afterwards, Pfizer’s testing has now revealed that its own vaccine is just as effective.
I’m not saying that there’s anything shady going on here. This is the real world, after all, and not a novel. But if this *was* a novel, that would be a very big red flag about Pfizer’s intentions.
As I understand it, the 90% was an estimate based on a smaller number, and the 95% is based off of the formal Phase 3 results. Not that it matters, really: the government’s gonna buy or subsidize every dose both companies can make, very possibly for years.
If it’s all the same to all y’all .. while I agree with our host that this is a Really Good Thing … I’m gonna wait a little while.
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Make sure the vaccine doesn’t cause people to grow antennae or sprout gills or do somethin’ mundane but unhealthy.
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Not because politics .. but because this is right in the borderlands between Science and Mad Science ..
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Mew