Filenews 1 April 2021
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech have announced that their vaccine against Covid-19 has an effectiveness of about 91% in disease prevention, citing updated data including people who have been vaccinated for six months. The vaccine also has 100% efficacy in disease prevention among individuals participating in a clinical trial in South Africa, where the B1351 variant of the virus dominates, despite the fact that the number of participants is relatively small and stands at 800.
Although the overall effectiveness of the vaccine is 91.3% and is lower than the initially announced 95% in November after a clinical trial of 44,000 people, since then a series of variants of the virus has dominated in various regions of the world. Pfizer chief executive Albert Burla said the renewed results, which include data on more than 12,000 people fully vaccinated for at least six months, put the two companies in a position to apply for full permission from the US regulator.
Israel could begin vaccinating 12 to 15-year-olds in May, health officials said, following Pfizer-BioNTech's announcement that their vaccine against Covid-19 is safe and 100% effective. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is based on innovative mRNA technology and was the first Covid-19 vaccine to be licensed in the Western world at the end of 2020. Both the US and the European Union have authorised its granting to persons over the age of 16. Since then, it has been administered to millions of adults in 65 countries. A study of real data in Israel showed 94% effectiveness in a sample of 1.2 million people.
On Wednesday, the two companies announced that the vaccine is 100% effective in adolescents aged 12 to 15, according to clinical trial results, and expressed hope that vaccination of this age group will begin before the start of the next school year. Phase III clinical trials conducted on 2,260 adolescents in the United States "demonstrated 100% efficacy and the development of strong antibodies," the two companies announced, which will soon ask regulators for vaccine approval for adolescents. BioNTech director Ugur Sahin believes the results among 12-15 year olds "are very encouraging given the trends observed in recent weeks in terms of transmission of the British variant of the virus".
German Health Minister Jens Spahn announced that about 940,000 doses of vaccines will be received next week by 35,000 family doctors and that more than three million vaccinations a week will be performed in dispensaries by the end of the month. As explained by the Minister, successive vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson will be delivered from next week. The Moderna vaccine, he explained, will currently only be given to vaccination centres, as it is considered safer to avoid its second transfer. In addition, the AstraZeneca vaccine will not be given to people under 60 in private clinics, except in vaccination centres and hospitals. Despite the general directive not to grant to persons under 60 years of age, one can be vaccinated if one so chooses.
Meanwhile, the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine was received by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Mr Steinmeier, who turned 65 last January, was vaccinated with her vaccine at the Armed Forces Hospital in Berlin. On the other hand, German Interior Minister Horst Zeehofer refused to be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine, thus rejecting an invitation from the Minister of Health. "My response to Jens Span's invitation is "no!" I will not allow anyone to patron with me," Mr Zeehofer told bild newspaper, but avoided evaluating the vaccine itself, which is now accompanied in Germany by the recommendation to avoid people under 60.
After consultation, the Austrian National Immunization Committee made a recommendation to continue the vaccination programme in Austria with the AstraZeneca vaccine against Covid-19. As stated in the Commission communication, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) continues to assess thrombosis in relation to vaccinations, but the data available so far do not yet show a homogeneous picture.
A shortage in vaccine doses means Sweden will give all its adult citizens the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 15 August, later than its original schedule of the end of June, authorities announced.
Source: CYPE
