February 1, 2021: Good Vaccine News -

At the top of today’s New York Times “briefing,” David Leonhardt offers “Good Vaccine News,” in which he talks about the concept of vaccine “efficacy.” The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have higher efficacy ratings than the other three that have been tested (Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, and AstraZeneca). The traditional definition of efficacy, however, measures the absence of disease. We might instead focus for a minute on how well all five vaccines prevent severe disease and death.

Here is the best bit:

Of the roughly 75,000 people who have received one of the five [vaccines] in a research trial, not a single person has died from Covid, and only a few people appear to have been hospitalized. None have remained hospitalized 28 days after receiving a shot.

To put that in perspective, it helps to think about what Covid has done so far to a representative group of 75,000 American adults: It has killed roughly 150 of them and sent several hundred more to the hospital. The vaccines reduce those numbers to zero and nearly zero, based on the research trials.

And here’s the end of the piece:

In truth, so long as the data holds up, any of the five vaccines can save your life.

Last week, Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University told my colleague Denise Grady about a conversation he had with other experts. During it, they imagined that a close relative had to choose between getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine now or waiting three weeks to get the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. “All of us said, ‘Get the one tomorrow,’” Schaffner said. “The virus is bad. You’re risking three more weeks of exposure as opposed to getting protection tomorrow.”

It’s a short overview, and well worth a few minutes’ read. Plus, there are a lot of links to more in-depth articles, if those appeal to you.