New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Pfizer: COVID-19 vaccine stays effective after six months, combats variants.
Company says it also combats one major variant
NEW HAVEN — Pfizer announced Thursday that a trial showed its COVID-19 vaccine safeguarded patients six months after they received a second dose, particularly against severe cases of the disease.
The company said the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, known technically as BNT162b2, had been 91.3 percent effective through six months over a sample of 46,307 trial participants, including preventing 100 percent of severe cases as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 95.3 percent effective against severe cases as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Officials said 77 people who had received the vaccine came down with a case of the disease; none of the cases was severe, according to the CDC’s definition.
The vaccine also demonstrated effectiveness against the variant of the virus that was found in South Africa, officials said. There, nine people came down with the virus, six of whom had the variant; all of those who tested positive for the virus had received a placebo instead of the vaccine.
“These data confirm the favorable efficacy and safety profile of our vaccine and position us to submit a
Biologics License Application to the U.S. FDA,” said Albert Bourla, chairman and chief executive officer of Pfizer. “The high vaccine efficacy observed through up to six months following a second dose and against the variant prevalent in South Africa provides further confidence in our vaccine’s overall effectiveness.”
“It is an important step to further confirm the strong efficacy and good safety data we have seen so far, especially in a longerterm follow-up,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech. “These data also provide the first clinical results that a vaccine can effectively protect against currently circulating variants, a critical factor to reach herd immunity and end this pandemic for the global population.”
Reported side effects were “generally consistent with previously reported results,” with no “serious safety concerns observed,” officials said.
Efficacy of the vaccine was “generally consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics, and across participants with a variety of underlying conditions,” officials said.
The study is expected to be submitted for peer review in the near future, officials said.
Connecticut officials said this week that 41 percent of all people 16 and older had already received at least a first dose of a COVID vaccine. That ranked Connecticut second in the nation for percentage of population to receive a dose, according to CDC data.
As of Monday, nearly 1.2 million first doses of the vaccine had been administered in Connecticut and a total of 684,400 people were fully vaccinated.
According to the state Department of Public Health, first doses have been administered to 25,262 people in New Haven; 3,381 in East Haven; 19,879 in Hamden; and 13,619 in
West Haven.
Residents in and around New Haven have been part of the clinical trials for the coronavirus vaccine.
The Rev. Leroy Perry, pastor at St. Stephens
AME Zion Church in Branford, was one of them.
“Part of the reason that we took part in the study was to say to our communities that we thought this was an important step for all of us. And we wanted to show, and to have them see, that we believed in it enough to take it, that it was safe, and it was critical, particularly for our population that was being impacted in such a dramatic way,” Perry said at a March forum organized by Yale University. “I tell all my friends and all my congregants — I got the shot. That’s good news. That’s gospel news.”
Hearst Connecticut Media is tracking the rollout and distribution of the vaccine. Further statistics are available at bit.ly/3sLeJRJ