Fauci says the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in a real-world setting is better than expected

During a pre-recorded speech to kick off ATS2021 International ConferenceFauci reaffirms what researchers and clinicians have learned about the disease since its first onset in China from late 2019 to early 2020, and the remaining challenges to defeat the virus. Did.

He called it “the most devastating respiratory disease pandemic of the last 102 years.”

He repeatedly emphasized that estimates of illness and death are likely to be underestimated, both globally and in the United States. Approximately 160 million people have been infected and 3.3 million have died worldwide. Nearly 580,000 people have died in the United States and more than 30 million have infectious diseases.

The United States has not yet lowered its baseline number of infections to lower levels, as each of the three deadly surges over the past year has made the country worse than before. Today, the number of infections per day has dropped from 60,000 a few weeks ago to about 40,000.

He implemented a very strong vaccination program, in contrast to Israel, which is now almost free of infection.

See Recent editorial He wrote for the journal ScienceFauci pointed out that the scientific research that produced the three approved vaccines in the United States began decades ago.The belief that vaccine technology is somehow unproven is only one of many contributing factors. Vaccine hesitant In the United States.

US clinical trials of the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have shown 95% and 94.1% efficacy. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine tested in the United States, Brazil and South Africa showed 66% overall efficacy and 85% efficacy for severe illness.

“Now, as many people know, real-world efficacy is often not as good as the pristine efficacy of clinical trials,” Fauci said. .. “We have found the exact opposite of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the real world, this vaccine is as easy, if not good, as effective.”

He cited a study of more than 23,000 employees at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where vaccination began on December 15, 2020. The infection rate for fully vaccinated workers was only 0.05%.

Another study examined the effectiveness of the vaccine in eight locations in the United States with nearly 4,000 essential and front-line healthcare workers. For 78,902 man-days with full vaccination (0.04/1000 man-days), there were infections confirmed by only three polymerase chain reactions (PCR).

Fauci also Lancet Earlier this month, we investigated the impact of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine on infections, hospitalizations and deaths in Israel after a national vaccination campaign was launched on December 20, 2020. This study used national surveillance data for the first four months of the campaign.

The campaign began around the time of a nationwide blockade on December 27, when SARS-CoV-2 infections surged in Israel. An additional blockade was implemented on January 8, 2021. The country began a gradual reopening on February 7th and 21st. , 2021, the blockade was lifted on March 7.

The number of infections plummeted as vaccinations became more widespread, and study authors attributed the decline in campaigns rather than blockades. Indeed, Fauci said the number of incidents continued to decline even as the country reopened.

He said the Israeli subspecies B.1.1.7 is now the predominant subspecies here. The effectiveness of the vaccine extends beyond the age group, with a 97.5% effectiveness in preventing severe or serious illness and a 96.7% effectiveness in preventing death from COVID-19.

According to another study, Fauci also used the Qatar example. In this example, the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing death from the B.1.351 mutant in South Africa.

All this is summarized in the “competition” between viruses and vaccines, Forch said.

“Vaccination of an overwhelming proportion of the population can definitely control the outbreak, just like other viral diseases such as measles, smallpox and polio. The message is vaccinated. I did. “