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Whether RNA vaccines can prevent transmission of coronavirus in addition to Covid-19 lung disease was long unclear. Now there are positive signs from pharmaceutical company Pfizer – but no proof yet.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla spoke to the Irish newspaper “The Journal” of “encouraging” data. In animal studies, he said, it has already been possible to prove the prevention of infection, but in humans it is not yet fixed. Bourla expects more concrete data in February.
Proof still pending
The British tabloid formats “The Sun” and “Mirror” have already reacted to Bourla’s statements with corresponding reports, but it is still too early to speak of a breakthrough. The signals may be encouraging, but proof will only be provided by reliable or verifiable study results.
Anna Durbin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health expects that vaccines can reduce asymptomatic infections but will not completely eliminate them. “Most vaccines prevent disease – as opposed to infections.”
That’s also the case with AstraZeneca’s vaccine, for example, according to previous research: it reduces cases of asymptomatic infections, but doesn’t set them to zero. Rajesh Gandhi of Harvard Medical School in Boston nevertheless considers this partial protection to be “crucial,” because in many cases the coronavirus is transmitted via asymptomatic patients. Earlier studies assumed up to 80 percent of asymptomatic transmissions; more recently, the figure has leveled off at around 20 percent.
source: orf.at/picture: pixabay.com
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