Pfizer and Moderna said their COVID-19 vaccines, both using an innovative new technology, had proven to be well over 90 per cent effective, a tantalizing hint about how the pandemic could eventually end.
It may surprise some that the impressive efficacy rates claimed by both manufacturers are not for the vaccines’ ability to prevent infection. Detailed trial protocols, though not the news releases, indicate the phase-3 clinical trials primarily tracked cases where participants actually developed symptomatic disease.
Studies have estimated that 20 to 80 per cent of people who contract the virus causing COVID never experience symptoms, yet can still potentially transmit the disease to others.
“The problem is that the messaging is very different than what the public is being told,” said Ed Mills, a Vancouver-based clinical trials expert and part-time McMaster University professor. “We’re told this is going to end the pandemic. It’s not going to end the pandemic. It’s going to hopefully prevent people from getting sick, but it’s not going to stop transmission. That’s not what they measured.”
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