The first day of what will no doubt be a busy #covid19 week, started with some good news for AstraZeneca.
Results from the large trial in the Americas show AZ vaccine has 79% efficacy at preventing symptomatic #covid19.
Story here, few thoughts to come:
sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/a…
Results from the large trial in the Americas show AZ vaccine has 79% efficacy at preventing symptomatic #covid19.
Story here, few thoughts to come:
sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/a…
Caveat first:
Like most early vaccine results in this pandemic this is based solely on a press release by the company.
There are some big holes in what we know so far and I am getting pretty fed up with the dearth of data reported in these releases.
Companies need to do better.
Like most early vaccine results in this pandemic this is based solely on a press release by the company.
There are some big holes in what we know so far and I am getting pretty fed up with the dearth of data reported in these releases.
Companies need to do better.
The good news:
This was a well-designed trial with more than 32,000 participants and it shows strong protection from symptomatic #Covid19.
"I’m thrilled”, @ashishkjha told me. “This is the vaccine that I had always assumed would vaccinate a large chunk of the world.”
This was a well-designed trial with more than 32,000 participants and it shows strong protection from symptomatic #Covid19.
"I’m thrilled”, @ashishkjha told me. “This is the vaccine that I had always assumed would vaccinate a large chunk of the world.”
@ashishkjha About 1 in 5 participants in this trial were over 65, so this is good data on efficacy in older people.
And there were 141 cases of symptomatic #covid19 overall which is a decent number.
And there were 141 cases of symptomatic #covid19 overall which is a decent number.
@ashishkjha The press release also points out that in the more than 20,000 people that received the vaccine no case of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was found.
That’s good. But given the safety signal in Europe you wouldn’t really expect 1 in 20,000 so this does not tell us much.
That’s good. But given the safety signal in Europe you wouldn’t really expect 1 in 20,000 so this does not tell us much.
@ashishkjha And then, annoyingly, the company claims "100% efficacy at preventing severe disease and hospitalisation”.
But it does not give any other numbers on this. Without knowing whether it was 1 case in the placebo group or 10 or 15, it’s hard to know what “100%” really means.
But it does not give any other numbers on this. Without knowing whether it was 1 case in the placebo group or 10 or 15, it’s hard to know what “100%” really means.
@ashishkjha “Not reporting how many of these events happened in the placebo group is probably very misleading,” @hildabast told me. "Encouraging people to think they have perfect protection from serious harm if they are vaccinated is a terribly risky message”
Hopefully we will have data soon
Hopefully we will have data soon
Was just made aware of this bit of info which was not in the press release:
So apparently 5 cases of severe #covid19 in placebo group, none in vaccine group.
So apparently 5 cases of severe #covid19 in placebo group, none in vaccine group.
https://twitter.com/megtirrell/status/1373952815991721989
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