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Let's be clear about what the data from @moderna_tx today tells us. In their study, 95 people (so far) have contracted Covid (90 in the placebo group). Efficacy: 94.5%, a number so unnecessarily rich in significant figures it is making my inner high school chem teacher dry heave.
@BioNTech_Group and @pfizer released their prelim data last week, with 94 positive cases (a total of 164 total cases are needed to conclude the study) and a published efficacy of "over 90%," a much more common way to represent data that is still in the process of being gathered.
Now these are BOTH huge advances and wins for the world, and our formerly small field of mRNA therapeutics. But watching a number of reporters and talking heads fall over themselves to declare the Moderna vaccine superior is both incorrect and damaging.
This is dangerous, as stoking half-truths around vaccine superiority will lead to people fighting for which vaccine to get and could reduce adherence. Lowered adherence or holding out for "the better vaccine" (regardless of the reality) could slow our return to normal.
The world will need both (and even more) vaccine technologies to put this genie back in the bottle after the massive fuck up of pandemic containment we have been leading here in the United States. Both vaccines are actively being evaluated and have NEAR IDENTICAL numbers.
The only superiority conclusion we can draw based on this news today is that of Moderna's PR team. And anyone in biotech will tell you they have always been true pioneers in that regard. After all, this is a company who made their first test patient in the study a CNN affiliate.
