“(Reuters) — Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday that final results from the late-stage trial of its COVID-19 vaccine show it was 95% effective, adding it had the required two-months of safety data and would apply for emergency U.S. authorization within days. The drugmaker said efficacy of the vaccine developed with German partner BioNTech SE was consistent across age and ethnicity demographics, and that there were no major side effects, a sign that the immunization could be employed broadly around the world. Efficacy in adults over 65 years, who are at particular risk from the virus, was over 94%. The final analysis comes just one week after initial results from the trial showed the vaccine was more than 90% effective. Moderna Inc on Monday released preliminary data for its vaccine, showing similar effectiveness. The better-than-expected data from the two vaccines, both developed with new technology known as messenger RNA (mRNA), have raised hopes for an end to a resurgent pandemic that has killed more than 1.3 million people globally and wreaked havoc upon economies and daily life. However, while some groups such as healthcare workers will be prioritized in the United States for vaccinations this year, it will be months before large-scale rollouts begin. Pfizer said on Wednesday there had been 170 cases of the disease in its trial of more 43,000 volunteers, of which 162 were observed in the placebo arm and 8 were in the vaccine group. Ten people developed severe COVID-19, one of whom received the vaccine. It also said the vaccine was well-tolerated and that side effects were mostly mild to moderate and cleared up quickly. The only severe adverse event that affected more than 2% of those vaccinated was fatigue, which affected 3.7% of recipients after the second dose. Older adults tended to report fewer and milder solicited adverse events following vaccination. The results come as the virus is running rampant in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, placing an enormous strain on healthcare systems with record numbers of new cases and hospitalizations. The approach of winter in the northern hemisphere in tandem with the holiday season is expected to worsen case numbers as people spend more time indoors and get together for family gatherings. “With hundreds of thousands of people around the globe infected every day, we urgently need to get a safe and effective vaccine to the world,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. Pfizer and BioNTech also said they plan to submit the data to other regulatory agencies around the world as well as the United States. They also plan to submit data from the study to a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Pfizer reiterated it expects to make as many as 50 million vaccine doses this year, enough to protect 25 million people, and then produce up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. Of the dozens of drugmakers and research groups racing to develop vaccines against COVID-19, the next data release will likely be from AstraZeneca Plc with the University of Oxford in November or December. Johnson & Johnson says it is on track to deliver data this year. (Reporting by Michael Erman in Maplewood, N.J., Additional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Peter Henderson and Edwina Gibbs)
Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera: Trump’s Not Speaking To Me Right Now
112 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera said Tuesday that President Donald Trump isn’t speaking to him because he acknowledges the fact that President-elect Joe Biden won the election. The conservative commentator, who has describ...
Trump Administration Lowballs Unemployment Benefits In New COVID-19 Offer
144 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["The latest stimulus offer from the White House comes with one-time $600 payments for most Americans and a lump of coal for the unemployed. The new proposal offered by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin swapped the $3...
Biden Selects Marcia Fudge As Housing Secretary, Tom Vilsack For Agriculture
88 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration,...
Trump: Millions Of Americans Getting COVID-19 Is ‘Terrific’ And A ‘Powerful Vaccine’
130 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["President Donald Trump on Tuesday spun the high number of Americans who have been infected with COVID-19 as “terrific,” claiming falsely that all those cases serve as a “powerful vaccine.” “I think that the vaccine ...
How To Deal With The Co-worker Who Is Constantly Complaining
124 Views0 Comments0 Likes
[]["fizkes via Getty ImagesComplainers may go to you because they feel like they are not being heard anywhere else. Here's how to treat their grievances with compassion.Everyone encounters a constant complainer at som...
MSNBC Names Rashida Jones President, Making History For Major Cable News Networks
175 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["MSNBC has named Rashida Jones its next president, making her the first Black executive to run a major general news cable network, The Wall Street Journal reported. Jones, who currently serves as the senior vice pres...
Bill Nye Explains Why Masks Keep Viruses In Those Pesky ‘Droplets Of Spit And Snot’ At Bay
151 Views0 Comments0 Likes
["Bill Nye explained the science behind face masks in a TikTok video posted on Friday, stressing that their effectiveness in stopping the spread of the coronavirus “is not that hard to understand.” Nye shared two map...