Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccines highly effective – US study

Covid-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are proving highly effective at preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infections under real-world conditions, federal health researchers have reported.

Consistent with clinical trial data, a two-dose regimen prevented 90 per cent of infections by two weeks after the second shot. One dose prevented 80 per cent of infections by two weeks after vaccination.

There has been debate over whether vaccinated people can still get asymptomatic infections and transmit the virus to others. The study, by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suggested that transmission may be extremely unlikely, as infections were so rare.

There also has been concern that variants may render the vaccines less effective. The study’s results do not confirm that fear. Troubling variants were circulating during the time of the study – from December 14th to March 13th – yet the vaccines still provided powerful protection.

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The CDC enrolled 3,950 people at high risk of being exposed to the virus because they were health care workers, first responders, or others on the front lines. None had previously been infected with the coronavirus.

Most – 62.8 per cent – received both shots of the vaccine during the study period, and 12.1 per cent had one shot. Participants collected their own nasal swabs each week, which were sent to a central location for PCR testing, the most accurate type of test. The weekly swabs allowed the researchers to detect asymptomatic infections as well as symptomatic ones.

Analysis of records

The investigators also asked participants about symptoms associated with infection, including fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, diarrhoea, muscle aches, or loss of smell or taste. The researchers also analysed patients’ medical records to detect illnesses.

Fifty-eight per cent of the infections were detected before people had symptoms. Just 10.2 per cent of infected people never developed symptoms. Among those who were fully vaccinated, there were .04 infections per 1,000 person-days, meaning that among 1,000 persons there would be .04 infections in a day. There were 0.19 infections per 1,000 person-days among those who had had one dose of the vaccine.

In contrast, there were 1.38 infections per 1,000 person-days in unvaccinated people. "This study shows that our national vaccination efforts are working," said Dr Rochelle P Walensky, the CDC director, in a news release. The CDC said this is the first of many vaccine effectiveness studies it will be conducting. – New York Times