Source: NPR
By Allison Auberry
As we get closer to a COVID-19 vaccine, it’s exciting to imagine a day when the virus is gone. But a vaccine will not be a magic bullet. In fact, it may be only about 50% effective.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief of the National Institute of Health and Infectious Disease, has tried to set realistic expectations when discussing the importance of a vaccine. “We don’t know yet what the efficacy might be. We don’t know if it will be 50% or 60%,” Fauci said during a Brown University event in August. I’d like it to be 75% or more,” Fauci said, but he acknowledged that may not be realistic.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has said that once a vaccine is shown to be safe and at least 50% effective it could be approved for use in the U.S.
So what does 50% efficacy mean?
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“When we talk ‘vaccine effectiveness,’ what we’re talking about is, ‘How effective was the vaccine at preventing actual disease,’ ” explains scientist L.J. Tan, chief strategistof the nonprofit Immunization Action Coalition.
In other words, Tan says, “If you vaccinate 100 people, 50 people will not get disease.”
This may not sound like an impressive rate of infection prevention, but there are other potential benefits to individuals and the community from getting vaccinated.
“It’s possible that the [COVID-19] vaccine will reduce the severity of disease” in the other 50% who do get sick, says physician Bill Miller of The Ohio State University, College of Public Health. “It may mean that people are less likely to be hospitalized, require ICU care, or die.”
The best of the Muslim Times’ collection for war against Covid 19:
In this day and age, understanding bacteria and viruses and developing vaccines are national security issues. In my view sizable part of every country’s defense budget should be spent in these pursuits rather than making tanks and other weapons.
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Categories: Vaccine
Merck MRK 1.09% & Co. has begun testing one of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine candidates in healthy volunteers.
The study, located in Belgium and seeking to enroll 260 subjects, was reported by Merck on a government database and confirmed by the company. The company said dosing in study subjects has begun, but declined to comment further.
The Phase 1 /2 trial would evaluate the shot in healthy volunteers to make sure it is safe and as look for signs the vaccine generates an immune response to the new coronavirus.
The study is projected to complete in April 2022, according to the government database clinicaltrials.gov, though it could finish much faster. Several early-stage Covid-19 vaccine trials have produced results within months.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/merck-covid-19-vaccine-begins-human-testing-11599859776?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_2&cx_artPos=1#cxrecs_s
Also Saturday, Pfizer Inc. PFE 1.18% and partner BioNTech SE said they asked U.S. regulators to permit expanding the late-stage trial testing for their experimental Covid-19 vaccine to about 44,000 people, up from 30,000.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-trials-resume-in-the-u-k-11599922981?mod=hp_lead_pos1