After fascinating the global healthcare community with its impressive mid-coronavirus vaccine candidate trial results which revealed 90 percent efficacy in tackling COVID-19, American-German vaccine maker duo Pfizer and BioNTech have now stated that their coronavirus vaccine candidate is 95 percent effective and works efficiently among elders.
The results which were part of the duo’s second batch of interim results offer great promise to curtail the spread of the pandemic among the most vulnerable people, older age groups who carry the most risk of falling prey to the virus.
The firm revealed that “Primary efficacy analysis demonstrates BNT162b2 to be 95 percent effective against COVID-19 beginning 28 days after the first dose” when “170 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were evaluated with 162 observed in the placebo group versus 8 in the vaccine group.”
The American pharmaceutical giant now has data that is based on 70 infections. The data reveals that only eight infections were recorded among volunteers who got the vaccine, while only one had a severe case of infection.
The results combined with the data released earlier builds a strong case for the Pfizer-BioNTech duo to approach the relevant US authorities to gain an emergency vaccine usage license which will allow priority individuals such as front-line healthcare workers, law enforcement officials and most likely teachers to get administered with the vaccine as early as December.
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
The mRNA-based vaccine is not embedded with the virus itself and therefore does not carry any risk of infecting the individual with COVID-19 when they take the shot.
The vaccine is infused with a piece of genetic code that trains our immune system to recognize the spike protein on the surface of the virus and build the essential protection against it.
