Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can prevent infections, not just symptoms, study finds

According to US infectious disease specialists, the data suggests that Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines prevent not only symptoms of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but also possible new infections.

A team from the prestigious Mayo Clinic institution examined more than 31,000 people in four states in the United States who had received at least one of the two doses that make up the immunization schedules in that country. This is how found that inoculants were over 80% effective in preventing infection 36 days after the first dose, on average.

At 15 days, the efficacy was detected at 75%, and seemed to show 89% from 36 days after the second dose, as reported by the scientific publication of Medrxiv, not yet peer reviewed.

The vaccination campaign in this North American country has been delayed by the harsh winter conditions that have hit much of the country administered by Joe Biden. Despite the delay, authorities have pushed to vaccinate Americans before what appear to be more transmissible variants spread further and fear they may reverse progress in terms of reduced cases and hospitalizations.

So far and according to the British statistical tracker Our World In Data, over 66.44 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the United States. Out of 100 Americans, 20.08 have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and the country is fourth in the global ranking of nations that vaccinate the most against the pandemic disease.

For the doctor Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, “America is unlikely to achieve herd immunity to the virus until winter. We know COVID is really seasonal, so when next winter comes we have to have a much higher level of protection to stop it in its path, ”he told the CNN.

“Collective immunity does not take effect until 80% or more of the population is immunized, either by infection or by vaccination. And the new variants can complicate the picture, ”said Murray. “If people can be re-infected with the new variants, the pandemic can start again.”

Although officials expect vaccines to be widely distributed by the end of the summer, the president Joe Biden said on Friday that issues such as weather, mutant strains and manufacturing delays made it difficult to establish a schedule.. “I think we’re on our way, I promise you. I know we are going to run into obstacles. It won’t be easy here until the end, but we’ll win, ”he said while visiting a Pfizer facility in Michigan.

To speed up the pace and availability of vaccination, it was learned last Thursday that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines can be stored at temperatures customary found in pharmaceutical freezers for a period of two weeks. This has been specified by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This authorization relaxes an earlier requirement that required that vaccines be stored at temperatures between -80 and -60 degrees C..

The announcement was made last Friday by the company, which said vaccines can now be stored at temperatures between -25 ° C and -15 ° C, most common in pharmaceutical freezers and refrigerators.

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