The New England Journal of Medicine last week formally published the results of the study for the Moderna MRNA COVID-19 vaccine: both the Pfizer vaccine and Moderna use this technology.
The results are truly extraordinary: In the control or nonvaccinated group, 56.5 per thousand person-years of this group developed a COVID infection. In the vaccinated group, the number was 3.3 per thousand person-years. This results in a vaccine efficacy of 94% relative to eliminating infections.
With reference to severe infections, of the 30,000 people in the study, there were 30 people with severe COVID infections and one person died, and all of these were in the group that was not vaccinated. The vaccine was also studied by age, and was equally effective in the groups over 65 and groups under 65 with no significant difference. Side effects of the vaccine were minor.
One limitation of this trial was that it did not assess asymptomatic cases of COVID, and whether or not the vaccine prevents spread from someone who was vaccinated. So don’t yet put your masks away.
Though the study by the time of analysis was short at four months, having read therapeutic research trials for over 45 years, I have to say these are some of the most definitive results I have ever seen. Kudos to the combined private/governmental effort.
For those among us that are two weeks out from their second dose, and therefore as reliably protected as possible, it is time to venture out. Our small businesses, bars and restaurants need our support and rescue. I’ve had conversations with the state government, suggesting that they will use the beginning of our passage out of the pandemic to begin the process of normalization and help keep more businesses from disappearing by encouraging those who are fully vaccinated to give patronage to small establishments.
As of now, it is clear that Beacon Hill is so focused on getting the vaccine out, that they can not yet consider what the exit from the pandemic might look like.
Jay Fleitman
Northampton