Quote:
Originally Posted by Velvet
Thank you, I appreciate the explanation. I understand the testing was done one week after the second dose and they are not sure about the protection time as the antibodies have an unknown half life so there will be another test 2 weeks after the second dose to see how effective it still is etc. Therefore, I am cautiously optimistic.
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Again I suggest you read the protocol,
https://pfe-pfizercom-d8-prod.s3.ama...ol_Nov2020.pdf
They begin the evaluation for efficacy 7 days after the second vaccine which is the beginning time at which they hope the vaccine will be protective. But they are following for Covid disease continuously from that day forward. In addition to looking at disease prevention they are also drawing blood at the many follow up visits the participants attend. They are continuing to see them until 24 months which obviously is in 2022. One of the blood tests being done is immunogenicity testing.
Again it should be emphasized that this report lacks any detail. For example, what is the patient age distribution in the study group. The protocol says they intend to have 40% of participants be age 55 or older. As the disease is most serious in those over 70 I'd like to know how many were in that age group and whether any efficacy was found. The numbers may be too small to know. The only reported data is on the whole group, not any subgroup.
Optimism is welcome but tempered with reality. I look forward to more data on this as well as the other products in testing by other manufacturers both here and abroad.