Researchers warn against overly strong beliefs about vaccines



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The world was relieved when Pfizer and BioNTech issued a press release on Monday last week announcing that a vaccine was in the works and that it was more than 90 percent efficient. Experts have also applauded the advancement of the vaccine, but the same experts warn that there is a difference between clinical trials and how a vaccine will work in the real world. A 90 percent efficiency rate can drop when leaving the labs.

“In a clinical trial, you select the patients you like and follow them closely,” says analyst Difei Yang at Mixuho Securities on the Marketwatch website.

– In the real world, there are all kinds of ages and everyone has different underlying health conditions, he says.

It may also be that people posing as guinea pigs in a research program are better at wearing masks and engaging in social distancing than the general population.

“I can take off the mask”

There are also questions about how long you are immune to the corona virus after you’ve been vaccinated, and some fear that the news of the vaccine itself could lead to people becoming more careless.

– When you send the vaccine into the real world, people will behave differently, says Paul Offit, who runs the vaccine education center at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.

– They think ‘Great. I am safe. The vaccine works. It is 90 percent effective. I can take off the mask, “Offit tells Marketwatch.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced their vaccine news through a press release, not through a peer-reviewed article in a medical journal. This means, writes the Bloomberg news agency, that more research is needed to find out how well this works among the elderly and other vulnerable groups in the population.

More vaccine news just around the corner

The race between vaccine manufacturers over the past year is unparalleled in history. Manufacturers expected to present good vaccine news in the not-too-distant future include Moderna Inc. AstraZeneca, in collaboration with the University of Oxford, is also expected to release preliminary data from its trials in the coming weeks.

Although there may be several hurdles to a vaccine becoming available, and while it is not yet known how effective it will ultimately be, Raymond James analyst Steve Seedhouse was pleased with the news of the vaccine released last week. .

– It was a relief to see it, writes in an email to Marketwatch. (Terms)Copyright Dagens Næringsliv AS and / or our suppliers. We want you to share our cases via a link, which leads directly to our pages. Copying or other use of all or part of the content can only be done with written permission or as permitted by law. For more terms, see here.

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