Covid-19 Vaccines Trials: Understanding the First Published Results #6

• With massive awareness in the media, we now have some detailed information about the first of the Covid19 vaccine trials
• They differ in clinical usefulness
• The efficacy measures of 95% are widely mentioned, but let's be clear about what it means and how can we use that information
• In this episode, we go beyond the news coverage to find out and calculate how many persons need to be vaccinated to prevent one Covid19 infection both in general and for subgroups

GET THE ABSTRACT SCREENING TOOL

It can be a challenge to screen papers for clinical relevance. As we go beyond the abstract in this podcast, we have created a screening tool you can use when reading an abstract from a clinical research paper.

Using that tool enables you to quickly screen an abstract from a medical journal for clinical relevance selecting only those you want to read. At the same time, you will know why you skipped the rest. Get it at https://www.precision-evidence.com/tool

LINKS:

Pfizer/BioNTech data from FDA https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/download

Pfizer/BioNTech paper in NEJM https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577?query=featured_home 

AstraZeneca Paper in the Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32661-1/fulltext

Precision Evidence Podcast #5 https://www.precision-evidence.com/5

Table with estimates of how many people need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of covid-19 https://www.precision-evidence.com/blog/covid19-and-the-first-clinical-trials-analyzing-the-details/

NOTES:

• In this episode, we follow up on the last episode of the Precision Evidence Podcast where we went beyond the press releases about the Covid19 vaccines
• Now we have data from the first trials The Pfizer/BioNTech trial and the AstraZeneca Trial
• They are different in many ways
• How valid and useful is the data?
• The meaning and clinical relevance of efficacy at 95%
• How about clinical relevance and precision of the evidence
• To find out, we calculate how many persons must get a vaccination to prevent one Covid19 infection, both in general and for age and comorbidity subgroups
• Number Needed to Treat (NNT), or instead, Number Needed to Vaccinate
• Safety of the vaccines
• What is an mRNA vaccine
• What do we still not know / and does it matter?
• Conclusion and what to expect from other vaccine trials

Contact us at email: podcast@precision-evidence.com,

Twitter @PrecisionEBM,

website: www.precision-evidence.com

Hosts:

Dr. Kim Kristiansen, M.D: @KKristiansenMD

JG Staal: @HealthyEvidence

Music thanks to mixkit.co