'Absolutely remarkable': No one who got Moderna's vaccine in trial developed severe COVID-19

[Klaralven]

Continuing the spate of stunning news about COVID-19 vaccines, the biotech company Moderna announced the final results of the 30,000-person efficacy trial for its candidate in a press release today: Only 11 people who received two doses of the vaccine developed COVID-19 symptoms after being infected with the pandemic coronavirus, versus 185 symptomatic cases in a placebo group. That is an efficacy of 94.1%, the company says, far above what many vaccine scientists were expecting just a few weeks ago.

More impressive still, Moderna’s candidate had 100% efficacy against severe disease. There were zero such COVID-19 cases among those vaccinated, but 30 in the placebo group. The company today plans to file a request for emergency use authorization (EUA) for its vaccine with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and is also seeking a similar green light from the European Medicines Agency.

The data released today bolster an interim report from the company two Mondays ago that only analyzed 95 total cases but produced similarly impressive efficacy. “I would still like to see all of the actual data, but what we’ve seen so far is absolutely remarkable,” says Paul Offit, a vaccine researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who is a member of an independent committee of vaccine experts that advises FDA.

Moderna’s vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, relies on a novel technology that uses messenger RNA (mRNA) to code for a protein called spike that studs the surface of the pathogen. Pfizer and BioNTech have developed a similar mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 and also reported excellent results, with an efficacy of 95%, in the final analysis of their 45,000-person trial. In that study, which ended after 170 cases of COVID-19 were identified, only 10 severe cases occurred, and just one was in the vaccinated group.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/absolutely-remarkable-no-one-who-got-modernas-vaccine-trial-developed-severe-covid-19

Given the number of anti-vaxxers out there still infecting others, these are the vaccines that you want. Individual protection, rather than vaccine-induced herd immunity, is what you want in a vaccine.

[PSPS]

1. They make it sound like it merely reduces or eliminates symptoms which is not immunity.

The phrase "after being infected with the pandemic coronavirus" alarms me. A vaccine should make it impossible to be infected in the first place. Merely reducing/eliminating symptoms isn't enough to avoid future complications such as permanent heart and lung damage, strokes and neurological damage.

[Klaralven]

2. The 11 in the vaccine group versus the 185 who got Covid in the placebo group shows immunity

The immunity is excellent, 94.5%.

But, what's better is that none of the 11 got severe Covid. So even in the 5.5% who still got Covid, their cases were mild, indicating that even they had partial immunity.

[PSPS]

18. They say "developed COVID-19 symptoms," not "became infected." It's not a vaccine.

[NutmegYankee]

3. Some people don't develop immunity because of their own immune response.

It’s not the vaccines fault. None are 100% effective. None.

[PSPS]

19. There's nothing in this story that claims it has any effect on infection, just the symptoms.

If that's true, it's not a vaccine at all.

[NutmegYankee]

28. So what you are saying is you know very little about vaccines?

Got it.

[PSPS]

34. Vaccines prevent infection. Palliatives alleviate or eliminate symptoms.

What they're describing is the latter. You're assuming it's the former. I want it to be a vaccine just as much as you do. It's just that their description of what it does is not that of a vaccine and one's wanting it to be something it isn't is a mistake.

[NutmegYankee]

36. Doubling down is never helpful. nt

[roamer65]

4. Vaccines don't stop viruses from attempting to infect you.

They simply give you enough antibodies to hopefully ward it off sufficiently. About 5 percent will not form enough to stop the infection and a more sizable portion can have a sub clinical infection where they will no show symptoms.

I am going to aim to get the Moderna vaccine.

[LisaL]

7. I am not sure how one can aim to get a specific vaccine at this point.

We'd be lucky to get whatever is offered. Pfizer and Moderna seem to have similar results. Pfizer's is more difficult to distribute (because of storage requirements) but that shouldn't concern the consumer if vaccine is offered.

[roamer65]

16. I don't trust Pfizer.

I will make the judgment when it is available to me.

[LisaL]

17. I don't think anybody is gong to make you to get the vaccine.

NT

[roamer65]

23. There may be multiple ones available.

The Sinovac (Chinese) vaccine is attenuated SARS-CoV-2 virus.

[LisaL]

25. You might have to go to China to get that one.

NT

[roamer65]

30. I read China is shipping it out to other countries.

Would I get it? Probably not.

[LisaL]

32. Unless FDA approves it, you won't be able to get it in the US.

And China has not asked FDA for approval.

[roamer65]

33. Correct.

But it would not surprise me if they do.

[PSPS]

20. Merely reducing symptoms is not a vaccine.

[roamer65]

22. By your opinion there are no vaccines.

Nothing stops a virus dead in its tracks.

[PSPS]

24. Of course it does: Polio, smallpox, measles, etc.

[roamer65]

31. No. People can still have sub clinical infections of measles.

Even after vaccination.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10023894/

[PSPS]

35. Yes, those are the people in whom the vaccine was ineffective.

There's no such thing as "sub clinical infections" of polio, measles or smallpox at least as far as the ability to stop the spreading goes.

[roamer65]

37. NIH says otherwise.

[LisaL]

5. Vaccine should make it impossible to be infected? Nonsense.

Vaccines are not 100 % effective.

[PSPS]

15. You are incorrect

It's true that a vaccine isn't necessarily 100% effective. But in the percentage where it is effective, it does, indeed, "prevent infection." That's the very definition of immunity.

Oxford Dictionary defines 'vaccine' thus:

a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease.

So if something merely "prevents or reduces symptoms," it is not a vaccine. It's just a palliative.

[LisaL]

21. So you think you know better than Dr. Fauci?

"The primary endpoint is to prevent clinical disease, to prevent symptomatic disease, not necessarily to prevent infection," Dr. Fauci said in the interview. "The primary thing you want to do is, if people get infected, prevent them from getting sick. And if you prevent them from getting sick you will ultimately prevent them from getting seriously ill, so that's what we want to do."

https://www.self.com/story/early-covid-19-vaccines-prevent-symptoms

[PSPS]

27. I'm not saying it's useless or undesirable. It's just the misuse of the term "vaccine."

In other words, if one were to get this shot, they can't just assume they're "immune" from getting infected and they are still susceptible to the side effects of becoming infected.

[DrToast]

6. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are far better than expected

Some good news for the end of 2020.

[LisaL]

8. How does one get either one of these vaccines? This is the question.

NT

[DrToast]

10. Looks like the CDC is meeting to sort all that out

CDC Covid-19 vaccine advisers call emergency meeting to vote on who gets one first

[meow2u3]

9. I could be among the second priority to get the COVID shot

Since I'm diabetic, I'm at high risk of contracting severe COVID-19.

Front line workers, of course, are the top priority since they're highly likely to be in direct close contact with COVID patients and/or asymptomatic carriers.

Most important, this vaccine is a scientific marvel.

[LeftInTX]

11. Why did only 185 in the placebo group develop symptoms?

[DrToast]

12. What do you mean?

That's how many people caught Covid-19 while going about their normal lives. The placebo group wasn't intentionally exposed to the virus, if that's what you mean.

[LeftInTX]

14. OK Thx..Thought they intentionally exposed them

[Initech]

13. Whatever it takes to kill this thing!

Time to give COVID the death it very much deserves! It has long overstayed its' presence.

[Hugin]

26. Once again I will ask if the subjects of the study continued other COVID protocols...

such as masks, distancing, and isolation.

This article doesn't explicitly state if they were.

[LisaL]

29. They were told to continue on as normal as far as I can tell.

NT