Data finds 95 percent effectiveness asU.S. hits 250,000 virus deaths

WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Wednesday that it will seek emergency authorization for its coronavirus vaccine within days, after reporting that its latest analysis showed that the vaccine is 95 percent effective at preventing illness and causes no major safety problems.

The encouraging report was in sharp contrast to bleak news about the pandemic.

On Wednesday, the nation reached the once-unthinkable milestone of 250,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 as over 1,500 more people succumbed to the virus. And the nation registered more than 142,000 new cases,

with more than 72,000 people hospitalized.

And in New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that the nation’s largest school district will close Thursday because of rising coronavirus infection rates in the city, and that all students will learn remotely for an indefinite period.

Pfizer’s experimental vaccine, which it developed with German biotechnology firm BioNTech, had shown promise in a preliminary analysis announced last week, but the trial sped to completion faster than anticipated because of a spike in coronavirus cases.

The new data showed that the vaccine was 94 percent effective among people over 65, a group at high risk of serious illness, and prevented severe as well as mild cases.

Pfizer’s findings on its experimental vaccine haven’t been published or peer-reviewed but will be scrutinized by the Food and Drug Administration and an independent advisory committee that makes recommendations to the agency.

That influential panel of outside experts likely will meet publicly on the Pfizer application during the second week of December and might scrutinize data from biotechnology company Moderna the next week.

Moderna said thisweek that an early analysis of its vaccine showed that it was nearly 95 percent effective.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the two vaccines could be authorized by the FDA and be ready for distribution “within weeks.”

The Pfizer data “looks great. It looks like a home run,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Together, the Pfizer and Moderna data suggest that “there is an end date” to the pandemic, he added.

Among 170 cases of COVID-19, in the Pfizer trial, 162 were in the placebo group and eight were in the vaccine group. There were 10 cases of severe illness in the trial, nine of which were in the placebo group and one in the vaccine group.

Those findings signaled that the vaccine was protecting against the virus.

“We continue to move at the speed of science to compile all the data collected thus far and share with regulators around the world,” Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said in a statement.

U.S. government officials anticipate having 40 million doses of both vaccines — each requires two doses — by the end of the year, enough to vaccinate 20 million people.

Pfizer aims to create 50 million doses globally, with the United States getting about half.

A vaccine can’t come too soon, with experts predicting that the country soon could be reporting 2,000 deaths a day or more, matching or exceeding the country’s spring peak, and that 100,000 to 200,000 more Americans could die in the coming months.

The deadliest day of the pandemic in the United States was April 15, when the reported daily toll hit 2,752.

There’s always a lag in deaths compared with the rate of infection and hospitalizations, and with the latter measure now hitting records every day, the death toll is certain to go on rising, experts say.

Just how bad it gets will depend on a variety of factors, including how well preventive measures are followed and when a vaccine is introduced.

“It all depends on what we do and how we address this outbreak,” said Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University professor of environmental health sciences who has modeled the spread of the disease. “That is going to determine how much it runs through us.”

Back in March when the virus was still relatively new and limited mainly to a few significant pockets such as New York, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, predicted it might kill up to 240,000 Americans.

It now has passed that mark, with no end in sight.

Since the beginning, preventive measures such as wearing masks have been caught up in a political divide, and that remains the case today, as the Trump administration resists beginning a transition of power to Presidentelect Joe Biden and cooperating on a pandemic strategy.

On Wednesday, an emotional Biden praised Republican governors and others who have bucked Trump to endorse more-stringent measures to control the spread of the coronavirus, while warning that a “tough guy” approach contributes to preventable deaths.

Biden contrasted restrictions imposed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, and a growing number of other Republican leaders with what he suggested is Trump’s negligence.

“Now you have the governor of North Dakota, you have others figuring it out, that this is real. We’ve got to do something,” Biden said as he led an on-screen briefing with nurses, a firefighter, a home health aide and others with firsthand experience dealing with the pandemic.

“And it’s not a political statement. It’s not about, you know, whether you’re a tough guy or not a tough guy,” Biden said, breaking off. “… It’s about patriotism. If you really care about your country, what you want to do is keep your neighbors and your family safe.”