Covid-19 News: Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is 95 percent effective
Further data about the coronavirus vaccine being developed by US
pharmaceutical company Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech shows that it is 95 per cent effective for all age groups, and protects 94 per cent of adults over 65. The new data, from the first set of complete results from the phase III trial, also showed that the vaccine produced no serious side effects. Pfizer and BioNTech said they will submit a request for emergency use authorisation to the US Food and Drug Administration within days, which will allow the vaccine to be used with people outside the trial. About 40,000 people participated in the trial, with half receiving two doses of the vaccine and the other half a placebo. Out of 170 covid-19 cases among trial participants, only eight were in the vaccinated group, the companies said in a statement. They said the vaccine worked similarly well “across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics”. The results are encouraging because older individuals are at an increased risk of becoming severely ill and dying from covid-19, in part because the immune system weakens with age.
The vaccine is based on similar mRNA technology to that used in the vaccine candidate being developed by US biotechnology company Moderna, which was found to be almost 95 per cent effective based on a preliminary analysis. We still don’t know if either vaccine can stop infected people from passing on the virus or how long any immunity might last. The Pfizer-BioNTech trial will continue to collect data on the safety and effectiveness of the coronavirus vaccine for a further two years.
A preliminary study suggests the majority of people who have recovered from covid-19 may still have coronavirus-specific immune cells in their bodies more than six months after infection. The study, which has not been published or peer-reviewed, included 41 people who had tested positive for the coronavirus at least six months prior. It found that levels of coronavirus-specific T-cells had only decayed slightly at six months, while other antibody-producing immune cells called B-cells actually increased between one and six months after infection.
Doctors in Switzerland said intensive care beds are at full capacity in the country. All of the 876 certified intensive care unit beds in Switzerland are occupied, the Swiss Society for Intensive Medicine said in a statement yesterday. It also advised vulnerable people to write down in a will whether they would like to receive life support in the event that they become severely ill. Switzerland recorded a daily average of 5262 coronavirus cases in the week leading up to 17 November.
The worldwide covid-19 death toll has passed 1.34 million. The number of confirmed cases is more than 55.8 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases will be much higher.
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What to read, watch and listen to about coronavirus
Race Against the Virus: Hunt for a Vaccine is a Channel 4 documentary which tells the story of the coronavirus pandemic through the eyes of the scientists on the frontline.
The New York Times is assessing the progress of different vaccine candidates and potential drug treatments for covid-19, and ranking them for effectiveness and safety. Humans of COVID-19 is a project highlighting the experiences of key workers on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus in the UK, through social media. Belly Mujinga: Searching for the Truth is a BBC Panorama investigation of the death of transport worker Belly Mujinga from covid-19, following reports she had been coughed and spat on by a customer at London’s Victoria Station.
Coronavirus, Explained on Netflix is a short documentary series examining the on-going coronavirus pandemic, the efforts to fight it and ways to manage its mental health toll.New Scientist Weekly features updates and analysis on the latest developments in the covid-19 pandemic. Our podcast sees expert journalists from the magazine discuss the biggest science stories to hit the headlines each week – from technology and space, to health and the environment.
COVID-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened, and How to Stop the Next One by Debora Mackenzie is about how the pandemic happened and why it will happen again if we don’t do things differently in future.The Rules of Contagion is about the new science of contagion and the surprising ways it shapes our lives and behaviour. The author, Adam Kucharski, is an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and in the book he examines how diseases spread and why they stop.
There were 1937 deaths from coronavirus in England and Wales in the week ending 6 November, according to the latest numbers from the Office for National Statistics. The number of people who died was 558 more than the previous week, which saw 1379 deaths. It is the second consecutive week with more than 1000 deaths involving the coronavirus across the two nations.
These latest numbers do not reflect the potential impact of new lockdown measures in England and Wales. England entered a four week nationwide lockdown on 8 November, with Wales coming out of a 17-day “firebreak” national lockdown on 9 November. Parts of Scotland will also enter a “near-lockdown” from Friday. It may take several weeks for the effects of these measures to appear in official death registration data, said Kevin McConway at the Open University in a statement. “If a person unfortunately dies from covid-19, that would typically be two or three weeks after they first had symptoms of the infection,” said McConway. “So maybe the current measures to reduce new infections are having an effect but it’s too early to see that in death registrations. But we absolutely can’t be sure of that yet.”
The UK government is reviewing the three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions in England to decide which measures should be implemented when the nation’s lockdown is due to end next month, according to housing minister Robert Jenrick. “Our hope and expectation is that [the national measures] will come to an end and we’ll move back into the tiered structure, and that will see a significant easing in all parts of England – more in some parts than others, depending on the rate of infection,” Jenrick told LBC today. “We’re doing the heavy lifting in November so that we can have a somewhat easier and more normal December.”
Other coronavirus news
Pfizer is piloting a delivery program for its coronavirus vaccine candidate in four US states – Rhode Island, Texas, New Mexico and Tennessee. There have been some concerns about how the vaccine would be stored and distributed, given its ultra-low temperature formulation. “We are hopeful that results from this vaccine delivery pilot will serve as the model for other US states and international governments, as they prepare to implement effective covid-19 vaccine programs,” Pfizer said in a statement yesterday.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson has tested negative for the coronavirus, his spokesperson told journalists today. “He took a test yesterday and that test was negative but he will in accordance with the rules on self-isolation continue to self-isolate,” the spokesperson said.
The worldwide covid-19 death toll has passed 1.33 million. The number of confirmed cases is more than 55.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases will be much higher. Latest on coronavirus from New Scientist. Coronavirus vaccines: How do mRNA coronavirus vaccines work? Science with Sam explains.
Moderna vaccine: Early results suggest the Moderna vaccine is even more effective than the Pfizer vaccine, including in older people, boosting hopes that we might end up with several vaccines against covid-19.A nurse wearing personal protective equipment performs a coronavirus nose swab test on a participant in the Moderna covid-19 vaccine study in Miami. A Moderna covid-19 vaccine study participant gets a coronavirus nose swab test in Miami
A coronavirus vaccine candidate being developed by the pharmaceutical company Moderna appears to be nearly 95 per cent effective, according to early trial results released by the company today. The vaccine candidate is in phase III trials involving more than 30,000 people in the US, half of whom received a placebo. The interim analysis found 95 cases of covid-19 among trial participants, only five of which were among the vaccinated group. None of the cases among vaccinated individuals were classed as severe, compared to 11 in the placebo group. The vaccine is based on similar mRNA technology to that used in the vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which was found to be more than 90 per cent effective based on a preliminary analysis. It still isn’t clear if either vaccine candidate can stop infected people from passing on the virus or how long any immunity might last.
Moderna said it intends to submit for an emergency use authorisation with the US Food and Drug Administration and global regulatory agencies in the coming weeks. The company expects to have approximately 20 million doses of the vaccine ready to ship in the US by the end of this year, and said it remains on track to manufacture between 500 million and 1 billion doses globally in 2021. Moderna has agreed to provide the US with 100 million doses of the vaccine, with an option to buy a further 400 million. The European commission has a potential purchase agreement with the company for between 80 million and 160 million doses, as part of the EU covid-19 vaccine scheme.
The UK decided not to participate in the EU vaccine purchase scheme and does not have any pre-existing purchase agreement with Moderna. A UK government spokesperson told Reuters it is now in “advanced discussions” with the company to acquire the vaccine. “Moderna are currently scaling up their European supply chain which means these doses would become available in spring 2021 in the UK at the earliest,” the spokesperson said.
Coronavirus case numbers in the US have jumped by a million in only a week. The country has now reached a total of more than 11 million cases since the start of the pandemic, just six days after reaching the grim milestone of 10 million. As of yesterday, more than 69,000 people across the US were in hospital with covid-19 – the highest number yet. A growing number of states, including Washington and Michigan, have reimposed stay-at-home orders and other restrictions. Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump has reportedly blocked the White House coronavirus taskforce from communicating with a separate team assembled by president-elect Joe Biden. “It’s almost like passing a baton in a race it would be better if we could start working with them,” said senior US health adviser Anthony Fauci yesterday on CNN’s State of the Union show.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson and several other members of Parliament are self-isolating after an MP at a meeting they attended on Thursday tested positive for the coronavirus. Lee Anderson, MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, developed symptoms of covid-19 on Friday and tested positive on Sunday. Johnson had covid-19 in April and was hospitalised, before recovering. In a video posted on Twitter today, he said he was “feeling fit