Pfiz­er-BioN­Tech da­ta lift glob­al faith in Covid-19 vac­cines, but set 'ex­treme­ly high bar' for com­peti­tors

Af­ter da­ta from ear­ly stud­ies came out, sci­en­tists were cau­tious­ly op­ti­mistic that the first Covid-19 vac­cines would prove ef­fec­tive, but they had no idea how ef­fec­tive. Giv­en their ex­pe­ri­ence with oth­er res­pi­ra­to­ry virus vac­cines, they cau­tioned it wouldn’t be a “mag­ic wand.” The FDA set the bar at on­ly 50%.

Now, the first batch of da­ta from a Phase III tri­al is in, and, ac­cord­ing to Pfiz­er, it shows the in­oc­u­la­tion can re­duce the risk of con­tract­ing a symp­to­matic case of Covid-19 by more than 90%. The re­sults floored ex­perts, in­clud­ing NI­AID chief An­tho­ny Fau­ci, but one com­pa­ny can’t vac­ci­nate the world. What does it mean for the rest of the can­di­dates in mid and late-stage tri­als?

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