4/2—Pfizer says vaccine 100% effective against South African variant
Pfizer Covid vaccine is 91% effective in updated data, protective against South African variant
[Media report.] Pfizer and BioNTech said their vaccine is around 91% effective at preventing the disease, citing data that included people inoculated for up to six months. The shot was also 100% effective in preventing illness among trial participants in South Africa, where a new variant is dominant, although the number of those participants was relatively small at 800.
New rise in Covid cases shows that, yes, the vaccines work
[Media report.] People under 60 are accounting for the majority of new Covid-19 cases across the country [USA] — likely a testament to the success of the vaccines that have been administered to primarily older, more vulnerable Americans. In New York, where cases are rising, some Covid-19 patients still require hospitalization, but the numbers of such patients are nowhere near the "astronomical" levels from a year ago, said Dr. Frederick Davis, an associate chair of emergency medicine at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Hospital. Now, Davis said, Covid-19 cases are mostly mild.
COVID-19 Vaccines vs Variants—Determining How Much Immunity Is Enough
How well do the COVID-19 vaccines developed so far protect against these novel coronavirus spinoffs? Trials of the Novavax, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson, and AstraZeneca vaccines in South Africa, where the B.1.351 variant of concern represents virtually all of the circulating SARS-CoV-2, seemed to justify concerns. The South Africa trials found lower vaccine efficacy compared with trials in other countries where B.1.351 wasn’t dominant.
COVID-19 in France: challenges and opportunities
Research is crucial in informing public health and government responses, but another important aspect is the role of health democracy—too often neglected—in the decision making process. The inclusion of individuals such as major city mayors or frontline health-care workers, for example, could be key when gaining public trust is difficult but essential. In their Correspondence, Eva Brocard and colleagues from the Conférence Nationale de Santé share their perspective on the importance of greater civil society involvement.
Policy Interventions, Social Distancing, and SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in the United States: A Retrospective State-level Analysis
We analyze the average effective reproductive number (Rt) in each state. States with stay-at-home orders in place at the time of their 500th case were associated with lower average Rt the following week compared to states without them (p<0.001) and significantly less likely to have an Rt>1 (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.01–0.37, p = 0.004). These states also experienced longer doubling time from 500 to 1000 cases (HR 0.35, 95% CI 0.17–0.72, p = 0.004). We found no association between distancing efforts and case fatality rate or doubling time from 50 to 100 deaths.