Pfizer and BioNTech s Covid-19 vaccine showed 94 percent efficacy. Vaccine effectiveness after the second dose was 94% for symptomatic Covid-19, 92% for documented infection, 87% for hospitalization and 92% for severe Covid-19.
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One month ago, the CDC published the results of more than 20 pandemic forecasting models. Most projected that COVID-19 cases would continue to grow through February, or at least plateau. Instead, COVID-19 is in retreat in America. New daily cases have plunged, and hospitalizations are down almost 50 percent in the past month. This is not an artifact of infrequent testing, since the share of regional daily tests that are coming back positive has declined even more than the number of cases. Some pandemic statistics are foggy, but the current decline of COVID-19 is crystal clear.
What’s behind the change? Americans’ good behavior in the past month has tag-teamed with (mostly) warming weather across the Northern Hemisphere to slow the pandemic’s growth; at the same time, partial immunity and vaccines have reduced the number of viable bodies that would allow the coronavirus to thrive. But the full story is a bit more complex.
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Last spring and summer, when a COVID-19 vaccine was only a glimmer of hope on the horizon, scientists warned in their careful way that vaccines might not live up to the public’s high expectations. The FDA said a vaccine needed to be just 50 percent effective. The most important thing, scientists told me, was that the vaccines at least protect against severe illness.
Then, in the fall, data from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine trials demonstrated 95 percent and 94 percent efficacy, respectively, against all symptomatic infections. They smashed expectations and created new ones. In comparison, the results from other vaccine trials look pretty good but unspectacular: AstraZeneca’s vaccine looks to be 70 percent effective; Novavax’s achieved 89 percent efficacy in the U.K., but only 49 percent in South Africa, based on data released yesterday; and Johnson & Johnson’s demonstrated 66 percent efficacy against moderate and severe infection, based on results r
Seniors living in two of Fellowship Square’s housing communities have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The first dose of the vaccine was distributed on Jan. 18 at Lake Anne Fellowship House in Reston. Another dose was administered at Lake Ridge Fellowship House in Woodbridge on Jan. 19. The vaccine will be provided for residents at Hunters Woods Fellowship House in Reston in February.
The move falls in line with the Virginia Department of Health’s Phase 1b for distribution of the vaccine: “Vaccinate Frontline Essential Workers, People Aged 65 years and Older, People Living in Correctional Facilities, Homeless Shelters and Migrant Labor Camps, and People aged 16 through 64 years with a High Risk Medical Condition or Disability that Increases Their Risk of Severe Illness from COVID-19.”
More than three quarters of COVID-19 patients hospitalised for treatment have at least one ongoing symptom six months after initially becoming unwell, according to a study published in The Lancet journal. The research looked at the long-term effects of the novel coronavirus infection in 1,733 patients first diagnosed in Wuhan, China between January and May followed to June and September. In the study, scientists, including those from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in China, interviewed the patients face-to-face using questionnaires to evaluate their symptoms and health-related quality of life. The discharged patients also underwent physical examinations, lab tests, and a six-minute walking test to gauge their endurance levels.