A COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech has been found to be more than 90 per cent effective in individuals who received two doses.
How’s that for your Tuesday?!
The vaccine, which could soon be rolled out in Australia, has usurped previous projections of 60 to 70 per cent effectiveness.
“The data on our vaccine candidates continues to be positive. We will examine the evidence carefully but the latest results are heartening news,” Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt told News Corp.
More than 43,000 voluntarily participated in the trial and were jabbed with either the vaccine or the placebo. Of this lot, 94 people have so far tested positive for coronavirus.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Dr Allen Cheng described the news as positive but wanted to see further detail.
“Promising early results for the Pfizer mRNA vaccine, but would like to see full details of safety and efficacy,” he tweeted, adding that the vaccine requires storage at -70°C which “will be challenging to distribute”.
If you want to read more about the press release, peep the press release from Pfizer here.
While the news of a potential COVID vaccine is promising, Dr Norman Swan, host of the ABC’s RN Health Report and Coronacast, has encouraged Australians to take the announcement with a grain of salt.
“I hate to rain on the parade but there are a couple of things we need to be careful of… this is a press release and it is a commercial announcement as much as it is a scientific announcement. The race here is to have a first mover advantage in the marketplace,” Dr Swan told ABC News Breakfast.
“Pfizer has not necessarily been a team player in the development of a vaccine.
“The other vaccine manufacturers that are at the front have shared the same trial protocol – in other words, they’re doing their randomised trials in the same kind of way – which means that when they get the results, it will be much easier to compare what they’ve found with each other and find out which is the best vaccine,” he explained, adding that Pfizer had not been part of that.”
Dr Swan said because Pfizer had not been as open as the other vaccine makers, it is not clear what the 90 per cent effectiveness actually means.
“I think that the announcement also acknowledges that. Is it 90 per cent effective at preventing the COVID-19 disease?”
“Which is what the regulators want to see, but the rest of us want to see 90 per cent effectiveness of preventing transmission – in other words, infection in the first place.“
So, watch this space?
Image: Getty / TEK IMAGE / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY