Show an ad over header. AMP  

Pfizer says its coronavirus vaccine is more than 90% effective

09 November 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced Monday that its coronavirus vaccine trial was effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in 90% of previously uninfected people and did not produce any serious safety concerns.

Why it matters: Should the results bear out, it would potentially a huge breakthrough in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Pfizer said it will go to the FDA by the end of the month for an emergency use authorization.

By the numbers: Pfizer, who developed the vaccine with German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, says that they have enrolled "43,538 participants to date, 38,955 of whom have received a second dose of the vaccine candidate as of Nov. 8, 2020."

  • "The trial is continuing to enroll and is expected to continue through the final analysis when a total of 164 confirmed COVID-19 cases have accrued."

Worth noting,per the N.Y. Times: The company "released only sparse details" from the trial, and scientists "have cautioned against hyping early results before long-term safety and efficacy data has been collected."

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

Section2

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.