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Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine 91.3% effective through 6 months

01 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday that their COVID-19 vaccine was 91.3% effective at protecting against symptomatic disease up to six months after the second dose, with no serious safety concerns, according to an updated analysis of clinical trial results.

Why it matters: Real-world and trial data continue to indicate that the vaccine is highly effective, especially against COVID-19 hospitalization and death. The companies said updated trial results showed the vaccine offered 100% protection against severe disease as defined by the CDC, and 95.3% as defined by the FDA.

Details: 927 symptomatic COVID-19 cases were detected among the trial's 46,307 participants — 850 of which came from the placebo group and 77 of which came from the vaccine group.

  • 32 cases of severe disease as defined by the CDC were observed in the placebo group, and none were observed in the vaccine group.
  • Researchers found no serious safety concerns in trial participants up to six months after the second dose, and the side effects were consistent with previously reported results.

What they're saying: “It is an important step to further confirm the strong efficacy and good safety data we have seen so far, especially in a longer-term follow-up,” said BioNTech co-founder and CEO Ugur Sahin.

  • “These data also provide the first clinical results that a vaccine can effectively protect against currently circulating variants, a critical factor to reach herd immunity and end this pandemic for the global population," he added.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.