CNBC: Moderna vaccine side effect: rheumatoid arthritis

[Chakaconcarne]

21. What about efficacy?

The trials have demonstrated short term (2 months) safety.....but, I don't think efficacy is going to end up being as high as they claim. Have they ruled out handwashing, social distancing and the use of masks by volunteers during the 2 months they've established efficacy? Are these volunteers most likely to be in urban areas with stringent lockdowns? They cannot tell people to not wear masks, not socially distance, etc. during trials. I'm real curious to see if they tracked any of this.

I haven't been able to find the study designs to see if these have been controlled for.

They did the same with flu vaccine, claiming a higher efficacy but can't control for handwashing and other disease spreading prevention people might practice (or simply exposure), which I believe is why we don't see high efficacy of flu vaccine even during years when they match. The mantra is "well something is better than nothing".

I'm not advocating against the vaccine, but these are the sort of things we don't always hear or know. They get buried by the headlines of "95% efficacy" and then there's a mad push to get everyone vaccinated before we actually know if it's working... We always find out 6 months in after millions of people have already been vaccinated for flu, whether it was effective or not. 8/10 years it doesn't match... I would just like to be a little better informed going into this and I'm sure this isn't a cheap exercise.

If anyone happens to find the study design and would post it, that would be awesome. I'll keep looking.