Dec 18 2020 Read 1610 Times
There’s no shortage of hype surrounding the highly anticipated COVID-19 vaccines, which claim to offer efficacy rates as high as 95%. Both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have developed vaccines with impressive success rates, though statistician Atanu Biswas says it’s important to understand exactly what this means.
“Primary efficacy analysis demonstrates BNT162b2 to be 95% effective against COVID-19 beginning 28 days after the first dose;170 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were evaluated, with 162 observed in the placebo group versus 8 in the vaccine group,” reads a press release issued by Pfizer-BioNTech. “Efficacy was consistent across age, gender, race and ethnicity demographics; observed efficacy in adults over 65 years of age was over 94%.”