Six died in Pfizer late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial

Six people died in Pfizer’s late-stage trial of the COVID-19 vaccine, but the deaths raises no new safety issues or questions about the vaccine.

Two people who received the experimental vaccine had died during the trial and four others who died were on a placebo.

The revelation was made by the US Food and Drug Administration just after Britain became the first country in the world to roll out the vaccine.

But the deaths are said to raise no new safety issues or questions about the vaccine’s effectiveness because all represented events that occurred in the general population at a similar rate, the FDA concluded.

The vaccine trial by Pfizer and BioNTech was 95 per cent effective in preventing coronavirus infections.

“All deaths represent events that occur in the general population of the age groups where they occurred, at a similar rate,” a report says.

The report says data shows the vaccine is just 52 percent effective after the first dose but the rate of success is higher after a second dose.

Nevetheless, The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca’s long-awaited analysis results for their coronavirus vaccine confirms it to be safe and highly effective in preventing Covid-19.

The Independent UK says trial data published in The Lancet has reaffirmed that the jab is 90 per cent efficacious if administered at a half dose and then at a full dose, or 62 per cent effective if administered in two full doses.

The newspaper says this is the first time large-scale trial results for any coronavirus vaccine is reported.