The Israeli Ministry of Health and Pfizer / BioNTech announced on Thursday that the Pfizer vaccine may prevent the symptomatic and asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19, reports ABC News.
- This means that the vaccine prevents people from spreading COVID-19 even when they are asymptomatic, which has been one of the dangerous ways for the coronavirus to spread around the world.
- The data allegedly showed that the Pfizer vaccine is 94% effective in stopping asymptomatic spread and infection, according to ABC News.
The researchers said that the Pfizer vaccine is 97% effective in stopping symptomatic spread, which is close to the 95% number that Pfizer originally announced, as I wrote to Deseret News.
Why is it important
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC that this could reduce the spread of the coronavirus in significant numbers.
- “This is extremely important … for society,” Bourla told CNBC. “It is the asymptomatic carriers and the patients that mainly spread the disease. We expected something good in terms of symptoms, ”he said.
- Bourla said he did not expect to see “such a high number” of asymptomatic cases.
One more thing …
The researchers said 80% of the cases were UK variant B.1.1.7, which is a sign that the Pfizer vaccine may be effective against this variant, reports ABC News.