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In recent decades, a vaccine has been found against many diseases. But not every vaccine is equally effective.
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From this graph from Deutsche Bank on vaccine efficacy, it’s easy to see why the world swooned this week at the hopeful, albeit preliminary, Phase 3 results (the final clinical trial phase before commercialization) of the candidate. Covid-19 vaccine from the US-German duo Pfizer-BioNTech.
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© Mediafin
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Among the laundry list of conditions, from influenza to hepatitis A to rotavirus, it is striking that the flu vaccine had an average effectiveness of only 44 percent over the past ten years, while the candidate Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech showed a promising 90 percent.
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To be clear, this means that of the 94 coronavirus infections among participants in the clinical study, 86 occurred in the group that received a placebo or dummy injection. The few remaining infections were found in people who received the vaccine.
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With that high effectiveness rate, the candidate Covid-19 vaccine already shines with vaccines for conditions such as chicken pox, mumps and polio. On the understanding that these are preliminary results. The results on the safety of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine will be announced next week.
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