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The COVID vaccines have been a major source of hope that the world will return to normal sooner rather than later. The CDC boosted that hope this week by releasing guidelines that allow fully vaccinated people to socialize with fewer precautions. Some experts think the CDC is still being overly cautious, largely because they don’t know how many vaccinated people carry COVID-19 without symptoms. But new data from Israel reveals that the Pfizer vaccine blocks a whopping 94 percent of asymptomatic infections.
The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is at least 97 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19, hospitalizations, and death. Unvaccinated people were 44 times more likely to develop the symptomatic disease and 29 times more likely to die from COVID-19. So far, this is the most comprehensive real-world evidence in support of a COVID-19 vacci
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Replay Video UP NEXT Scientists have identified seven new coronavirus variants that have emerged in the United States, according to a study awaiting peer review. All seven variants contained a similar mutation and were found to have emerged as early as July 2020. Scientists say it s not surprising that they re just now identifying new viral variants in the U.S., but it s too soon to know what, if anything, these variants mean for Americans. Scientists have also identified variants that first emerged on U.S. soil, including variants originating in the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and the Midwest.
FDA grants emergency use authorization to Moderna s COVID-19 vaccine
WCVB
CAMBRIDGE A second COVID-19 vaccine is authorized for use in the United States.
The Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to the COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Cambridge-based Moderna late Friday, one week after the agency authorized a similar vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.
“With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of COVID-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day, said FDA commissioner Steve Hahn.