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The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and German partner BioNTech SE has proved to be as effective in the real world as it was in clinical trials in the first major study of the two-dose regimen involving 1.2 million people in Israel.
The data was peer-reviewed and published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, and found the vaccine cut symptomatic cases of COVID by 94% across all age groups. It also reduced severe illness by 92%, according to the authors.
“This study in a nationwide mass vaccination setting suggests that the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine is effective for a wide range of Covid-19–related outcomes, a finding consistent with that of the randomized trial,” the authors wrote.
The news comes as Pfizer PFE, -0.01% and BiotNTech BNTX, -0.35% said they would test a third dose of their vaccine to see whether a booster is effective in dealing with new variants of the virus, that have emerged in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa, and that are now circulating in the U.S. and elsewhere.
“While we have not seen any evidence that the circulating variants result in a loss of protection provided by our vaccine, we are taking multiple steps to act decisively and be ready in case a strain becomes resistant to the protection afforded by the vaccine,” said Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla. “This booster study is critical to understanding the safety of a third dose and immunity against circulating strains.”
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee will review Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ, -0.02% single-dose COVID-19 vaccine at a special meeting on Friday and then vote on whether they believe the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. The FDA said Wednesday the vaccine had showed no unexpected safety concerns, bolstering hopes it will receive an emergency authorization and offer doctors further ammunition in dealing with the crisis.
A new variant of the virus, that is being called B.1.526 has been uncovered in New York City, according to the New York Times, and it carries a mutation that may undermine the effectiveness of vaccines. The newspaper cited two separate teams of researchers, one based at Caltech and another at Columbia University that have detected the new variant. The former posted its study online on Wednesday, while the Columbia team has submitted theirs to a preprint server and it’s not yet public.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Today show that mutations will arise in greater numbers unless people are vaccinated.
“This is a race between the virus and getting vaccines into people,” Fauci said. “The longer someone waits to get vaccinated, the better chance the virus has to get a variant or a mutation. So the sooner we get vaccine into the arms of individuals, whatever that vaccine is, once it gets by the FDA, if it’s available to you, get it.”
As regards the new strain in New York City, Fauci said such variants will arise. “The trick is when they do occur, to prevent them from spreading,” he said.
Fauci also offered an update on a new U.S. initiative to study so-called COVID “long-haulers,” those patients who have been left with sometimes crippling symptoms months after recovery. A study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that about 30% of COVID-19 patients report symptoms they cannot shake for up to nine months after falling ill.
“We don’t understand that syndrome very well,” said Fauci, who is also President Joe Biden’s chief medical officer.
“That’s the reason why we’re developing large cohorts of people to follow them and find out what the extent of it is, what the duration of it is, and what we call pathogenesis, what is the mechanism of why people have extreme fatigue, muscle aches, temperature disregulation, sleep disorders and something they call brain fog, which really means they have difficulty focusing or concentrating. It’s something that we have to look at very carefully and we are.”
About $1.5 billion in funding has been provided to finance the study.
The U.S. added 70,768 new COVID cases on Wednesday, according to New York Times tracker, and at least 3,210 people died. Cases are steadily falling, however, and have averaged 68,123 a day in the past week, down 35% from the average two weeks ago.
There were 54,118 COVID patients in U.S. hospitals on Wednesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, down from 55,058 a day earlier and the lowest level since Nov. 5. Hospitalizations are now down 59% from their January peak.
On the vaccine front, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker is showing that as of 6.00 a.m. Wednesday, 88.7 million doses had been distributed to states, 66.5 million doses had been administered and 45 million people had received at least one dose.
In other news:
• GlaxoSmithKline GSK, -0.85% GSK, +0.25% said its experimental monoclonal antibody treatment did not meet the primary endpoint in a mid-stage trial evaluating its use in hospitalized COVID-19 patients of all age groups, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. As part of the study’s design, the therapy, otilimab, was given in addition to the standard of care, which includes treatments such as Gilead Sciences Inc.’s GILD, -1.22% antiviral Veklury. GSK said it would now refocus the study on patients older than 70 years old, with plans to enroll 350 people who fit this demographic, after data from that study indicated the antibody treatment was more likely to improve outcomes for older patients. GSK said it plans to publish the details of the initial Phase 2 trial in a preprint.
• President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will mark the 50 millionth vaccine shot in the U.S. later Thursday with a White House event.
• Altimmune Inc. ALT, -11.65% were down 4.8% in trading on Thursday after the company said it started enrolling participants in a Phase 1 clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Altimmune is developing a single-dose nasal spray vaccine. The study is expected to enroll up to 180 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55 years old, who will receive one of three doses of the experimental vaccine. The company said it expects to share the first batch of clinical data from this trial in the second quarter of this year.
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. REGN, -1.21% said an independent committee recommended the placebo no longer be given to COVID-19 patients in a Phase 3 clinical trial because the company’s antibody cocktail demonstrated “clear” efficacy. The committee said the treatment, REGEN-COV, which received emergency authorization in November, reduced hospitalizations and deaths at two dose levels, and it would continue to enroll non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients who will receive either dose of the therapy. The company said it plans to share detailed clinical data from the trial next month as part of its effort to secure a full approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the antibody cocktail.
• Finland will enter a three-week lockdown starting March 8 as it works to contain a rising number of COVID cases, Reuters reported. The Nordic country has been widely admired for its success in reining in the pandemic last spring when it was circulating elsewhere in Europe. Prime Minister Sanna Marin said she is ready to declare a state of emergency next week, having discussed this with the president. Among other things, a state of emergency would allow closing restaurants, requiring healthcare workers to work longer hours and cancel their holidays. Finland has had 55,687 confirmed cases of COVID, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and 737 deaths.
Latest tallies
The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 112.7 million on Thursday, the Johns Hopkins data shows, and the death toll rose above 2.50 million.
At least 63.6 million people have recovered from COVID.
The U.S. has the highest case tally in the world at 28.3 million and the highest death toll at 506,500, after surpassing the 500,000 level late Monday. There was bad news from California, which has recorded more than 50,000 fatalities, the most of any state.
Brazil has the second highest death toll at 249,957 and is third by cases at 10.3 million.
India is second worldwide in cases with 11 million, and now fourth in deaths at 156,705.
Mexico has the third highest death toll at 182,815 and 13th highest case tally at 2.1 million.
The U.K. has 4.2 million cases and 122,303 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
To counter skepticism over its covid-19 vaccine, Russia has built a big public-relations effort at home and abroad. WSJ’s Georgi Kantchev explains why the success of Sputnik V is so important for the Kremlin. Photo: Juan Mabromata/AFP via Getty Images
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has had 100,832 confirmed cases and 4,834 deaths, according to its official numbers.
What’s the economy saying?
U.S. manufacturers in January booked the biggest increase in orders in six months, pointing to an economy that is gaining steam again after a letdown at the end of 2020, MarketWatch’s Jeffry Bartash reported.
Orders for durable goods — products meant to last at least three years — rose 3.4% in January, the government said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal had forecast a 1% advance.
Read: Inflation worries are back. Should you worry?
Separately, new applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell sharply in late February to a three-month low, but the still-high number of layoffs suggests the economy is rebounding slowly from last winter’s record coronavirus onslaught.
Initial jobless claims filed traditionally through the states sank by 111,000 to 730,000 in the week ended Feb. 20, the government said Thursday.
The steep decline was much bigger than expected, but the claims data has been very erratic and unreliable lately owing to processing snafus, bad weather and other problems. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal had forecast new claims would total a seasonally adjusted 845,000.
Another 451,402 applications for benefits were filed through a temporary federal-relief program.
Adding up new state and federal claims, the government received 1.16 million applications last week for unemployment benefits, based on actual or unadjusted figures.
Finally, The U.S. economy expanded at an annual 4.1% pace in the fourth quarter instead of 4%, according to updated data released by the Commerce Department Thursday, as MarketWatch’s Greg Robb reported.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast that fourth-quarter gross domestic product would be raised to a 4.2% annual growth rate.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that strong growth later this year is the outlook that he sees as the most likely for the economy. He said a 6% growth rate in 2021 couldn’t be ruled out. Today’s slight fourth-quarter GDP increase didn’t alter the government’s estimate that the economy shrank at a 3.5% rate in 2020 as the pandemic led to an unprecedented shutdown of activity.
Economists polled by the Journal expect 2.8% growth in the first three months of the year, followed by a 6% rate in the second quarter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -1.18% and the S&P 500 SPX, -1.76% moved lower.
