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Pfizer wants you to know that its COVID-19 vaccine is proving to be very effective.
After previously announcing that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 90 percent effective after the second dose, the company says the vaccine is 100 percent effective and has shown “robust antibody responses” in a study of participants between the ages of 12 and 15.
This is a major step forward for a national rollout of the vaccine and is promising news for those who want children back in the classroom as soon as possible.
“We share the urgency to expand the authorization of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15,” Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Pfizer, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We plan to submit these data to FDA as a proposed amendment to our Emergency Use Authorization in the coming weeks and to other regulators around the world, with the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year.”
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The coronavirus originated from animals and a majority of those who were infected early either worked at or frequently visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, according to The Guardian. The virus is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The Wuhan coronavirus is transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission.” That means an infected person can pass the virus by sneezing or coughing on another person as well as by direct contact.
While a majority of the cases have been detected in the United States and China — with more than 30.3 million confirmed cases and 549,000 deaths in the United States — it has now reached many countries around the world. It has also been confirmed in Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and many other eastern countries.
