Vaccine Safety, Efficacy & Contrasts

Pregnant women with COVID-19 are more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit and their babies born prematurely. Clinical trials excluded pre…

SMFM recommends COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy to reduce risks and protect mothers and infants. Safe, effective, and supported by data.

COVID-19 vaccination has been shown to be safe in pregnancy, and protects both the mother and infant from severe disease. It’s now also clear that infants’ antibody protection continues after birth.

Earlier this month, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to require all new vaccines to undergo placebo-controlled trials before approval. According to The Washington Post, an HHS…

Let's break down some notable differences between Moderna and Pfizer

Breaking down a new study in The Lancet.

No, They Don't Skip the Placebo Controls - Here's The Proof.

Most Used Inert (Saline) Controls. When They Didn't, Science and Ethics Tell Us Why

Tailoring Immunization Strategies to Protect Those Who Need It Most

The Math Reveals Even Greater Protection Than We Thought

New research suggests routine immunizations may help reduce dementia risk

How a breakthrough discovery about vaccine benefits is being weaponized to spread fear

Well, for one thing, all the kids who have been hospitalized and who died have been unvaccinated.

A new study reveals that public reactions to the deaths of anti-vaxxers due to COVID-19 are multifaceted.

We have moved beyond burning witches and lynching wrong-doers. So we should also stop shaming unvaccinated people. There are better ways to change behaviour.

Placebo-controlled studies for a vaccines is flawed. Placebo studies are sometimes unethical, especially when effective alternatives exist.

A new clinical study indicates that a single dose of the HPV vaccine is as effective as two doses, potentially easing vaccination costs.

Chance of stillbirth reduced by 15%, researchers find, after examining studies and trials that enrolled 117,552 women

Science builds on science

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US researchers show negative version of placebo effect behind many symptoms such as headaches and fatigue

Scientists have warned wealthy nations to share vaccines with poorer countries or risk the emergence of new mutant variants.

Objective To estimate the real world effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 and Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S vaccines against confirmed covid-19 symptoms (including the UK variant of concern B.1.1.7), admissions to hospital, and deaths. Design Test negative case-control study. Setting Community testing for covid-19 in England. Participants 156 930 adults aged 70 years and older who reported symptoms of covid-19 between 8 December 2020 and 19 February 2021 and were successfully linked to vaccination data in the National Immunisation Management System. Interventions Vaccination with BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1-S. Main outcome measures Primary outcomes were polymerase chain reaction confirmed symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, admissions to hospital for covid-19, and deaths with covid-19. Results Participants aged 80 years and older vaccinated with BNT162b2 before 4 January 2021 had a higher odds of testing positive for covid-19 in the first nine days after vaccination (odds ratio up to 1.48, 95% confidence interval 1.23 to 1.77), indicating that those initially targeted had a higher underlying risk of infection. Vaccine effectiveness was therefore compared with the baseline post-vaccination period. Vaccine effects were noted 10 to 13 days after vaccination, reaching a vaccine effectiveness of 70% (95% confidence interval 59% to 78%), then plateauing. From 14 days after the second dose a vaccination effectiveness of 89% (85% to 93%) was found compared with the increased baseline risk. Participants aged 70 years and older vaccinated from 4 January (when ChAdOx1-S delivery commenced) had a similar underlying risk of covid-19 to unvaccinated individuals. With BNT162b2, vaccine effectiveness reached 61% (51% to 69%) from 28 to 34 days after vaccination, then plateaued. With ChAdOx1-S, effects were seen from 14 to 20 days after vaccination, reaching an effectiveness of 60% (41% to 73%) from 28 to 34 days, increasing to 73% (27% to 90%) from day 35 onwards. On top of the protection against symptomatic disease, a further 43% (33% to 52%) reduced risk of emergency hospital admission and 51% (37% to 62%) reduced risk of death was observed in those who had received one dose of BNT162b2. Participants who had received one dose of ChAdOx1-S had a further 37% (3% to 59%) reduced risk of emergency hospital admission. Follow-up was insufficient to assess the effect of ChAdOx1-S on mortality. Combined with the effect against symptomatic disease, a single dose of either vaccine was about 80% effective at preventing admission to hospital with covid-19 and a single dose of BNT162b2 was 85% effective at preventing death with covid-19. Conclusion Vaccination with either one dose of BNT162b2 or ChAdOx1-S was associated with a significant reduction in symptomatic covid-19 in older adults, and with further protection against severe disease. Both vaccines showed similar effects. Protection was maintained for the duration of follow-up (6 weeks). A second dose of BNT162b2 was associated with further protection against symptomatic disease. A clear effect of the vaccines against the B.1.1.7 variant was found.

More Americans than ever are willing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, but a partisan divide remains.

This analysis is an update to a previous analysis conducted in September 2021. Using county-level data, we analyzed trends in COVID-19 vaccination rates in counties that voted for President Trump in the 2020 election compared to counties that voted for President Biden. We find higher vaccination rates for counties that voted for Biden. However, rates among those fully vaccinated that have received a booster are similar between the two groups.