There has been considerable range in reported efficacy from CoronaVac trials in different countries. No data was shared for analysis, making it hard to interpret the differences
Indonesia has bet on Sinovac's vaccine for the country hardest hit by COVID in Asia. Indonesian studies showed 65.3% efficacy, which officials said was above the WHO cut off. Brazil now finds efficacy at just 50%, the exact cut off wsj.com/articles/indon…
In hindsight, it may make a lot of sense why Brazilian researchers in December, when asked not to release official results, said only that CoronaVac's efficacy was above 50%
It's really important that countries making important decisions on vaccine investments have transparency and data sharing. Otherwise, this is an unregulated global stock market and that's not a good thing.
Thailand, facing a recent rise in COVID, has struggled to find vaccine stocks and has recently made plans to vaccinate with Sinovac's vaccine. Turkey, Chile, Singapore, Ukraine and Indonesia have also made deals with the company scmp.com/week-asia/heal…
Vaccines are desperately needed and expensive. It is crucial that countries have access to transparent data to make decisions. No one has money to waste. Lower efficacy vaccines may be better than nothing, but countries may invest in higher efficacy vaccines if all facts known.
This is fundamentally why we have stock exchange regulations. Public health, like the economy, cannot safely run on incomplete or disingenuous reports. We need phase 3 trial data to be shared transparently for public analysis.
Sinovac still looks like a useful as a vaccine. The study included asymptomatic cases so efficacy is low while for preventing moderate (78%) and severe (100%) cases, which is terrific. But transparency is so crucial when making these decisions.
It undermines trust in vaccines if data is not transparently shared. Sinovac can be an important tool in saving people from dying from COVID, but holding back on reporting data while advertising and selling the vaccine makes it seem fishy, even if overall the vaccine is helpful.
Note the mRNA vaccine trials did not look for asymptomatic infections or likely identify as many subtle, mild cases as healthworkers do
This is heartbreaking. Armando Manzanero was a musical legend and an elderly man. He was asked to inaugurate a museum exhibition for tourism without social distancing indoors, with imperfect masking. He died 17 days later of COVID.
"The BNT162b mRNA vaccine...is 4284 characters long, so it would fit in a bunch of tweets" berthub.eu/articles/posts…
"RNA is the volatile ‘working memory’ version of DNA. DNA is like the flash drive storage of biology. DNA is very durable, internally redundant and very reliable...computers do not execute code directly from a flash drive...[they use a]faster, more versatile [but] fragile system"
Mexico began vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine on Christmas Eve. The nurse, María Irene Ramírez, was the first to receive the vaccine in Latin America. Others in Chile and Costa Rica received the vaccine later the same day.
Ecuador and Colombia have approved and reached deals with Pfizer to begin vaccination in January and February respectively.
Argentina has approved the Pfizer vaccine, but currently has stocks only of the Russian Sputnik vaccine. Vaccination has not yet begun and plans still in the works ambito.com/politica/vacun…
Pregnant women were not specifically included in trials, but as supported by professional societies, including the @acog
and @mySFM,
they can choose to take the vaccine, particularly in consultation with their own doctor.