November 10, 2020

Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine shows 90% effectiveness

 A health care worker holds an injection syringe of the phase 3 vaccine trial, developed against the novel coronavirus pandemic by Pfizer and German company BioNTech.

vox
  • Early analysis from the drugmaker Pfizer shows that its potential Covid-19 vaccine is more than 90 percent effective. Less than 10 percent of the first 94 cases among more than 43,000 trial participants had received the vaccine, with more than 90 percent having received a placebo. Though these results are based on a very small group, they are promising. [Vox / Umair Irfan]
  • Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s C.E.O., was in occasional contact with President Trump on the vaccine’s timeline. “Every time I spoke with the president I told him that he should not worry about us compromising safety or efficacy, but that we would do it as quickly as science allows us,” said Dr. Bourla.
    Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s C.E.O., was in occasional contact with President Trump on the vaccine’s timeline. “Every time I spoke with the president I told him that he should not worry about us compromising safety or efficacy, but that we would do it as quickly as science allows us,” said Dr. Bourla.Credit...Bryan Derballa for The New York Times


    Pfizer plans to approach the Food and Drug Administration later this month about emergency authorization of the vaccine, and by the end of the year it expects to have enough doses to immunize 15 million to 20 million people, according to company executives. [NYT / Katie Thomas, David Gelles, and Carl Zimmer]
  • “I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said. “I believe this is likely the most significant medical advance in the last 100 years, if you count the impact this will have in public health, on the global economy.” [CNBC / Sam Meredith]
  • Some top Republicans questioned Pfizer’s release of the data on Monday, after President Trump lost reelection. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked rhetorically, “Why now?” and Donald Trump Jr. sarcastically called the timing “pretty amazing.” [Bloomberg / Robert Langreth, Naomi Kresge, and Riley Griffin]
  • Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, called the results of Pfizer’s early trials “just extraordinary,” adding that “not very many people expected it would be as high as" 90 percent effective. [AP / Lauran Neergaard and Linda A. Johnson]

  •  The Trump administration immediately tried to take credit for the vaccine, only to have Pfizer note that it has not taken federal money under Trump’s Operation Warp Speed for rushing a coronavirus vaccine.