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A vaccine by any name is worth a shot

The One Vaccine Efficacy Number That Truly Matters — Faye Flam

Something sounds fishy when public-health experts advise us to take whatever vaccine is available even though some vaccines show much more promising efficacy numbers than others. And it's understandable that people would want to shop for the best vaccine. Americans are accustomed to the idea of consumer choice in pharmaceuticals — why else would we have so much direct-to-consumer drug advertising? But cut through the noise and there's only one thing that really matters: All three FDA-authorized vaccines seem to work equally well — close to 100% — at preventing hospitalization and death.

That message has gotten diluted in the reporting around the efficacy numbers for different vaccines. The efficacy numbers associated with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines came in at around 95%, while the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine has shown a less impressive 72% in the U.S., and even lower in other countries. As risk-communication expert Peter Sandman says, people remember from school that 95% usually earns an A, and 72% a C at best. 

The problem is that numbers most touted to measure "efficacy" measure various degrees of symptoms plus a positive test — criteria that vary some from trial to trial. They don't measure what's most important: protection against hospitalization and death.

Read the whole thing.

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This is the Weekend Edition of Bloomberg Opinion Today, a roundup of the most popular stories Bloomberg Opinion published this week based on web readership.

 

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