Stats on Oxford vaccine

[Dementedswan]

Does anyone know the stats on the Oxford vaccine? There seems to be a lot of conflicting reports. Is it true its not as effective as the others?

What stats are you looking for?

How effective it is in comparison with the others etc.

I've already had the Oxford, so it's a bit of a non issue.. I just like to know these things

All the vaccines have been tested and proven to be effective. They will all have small strengths and weaknesses but will all do a decent job of stopping you from getting seriously ill.

The situation is so fluid that the data changes all the time as more people are vaccinated, and more variants emerge. So read it all in that light.

The tendency to rubbish AZ, in my opinion, is at least it part down to the fact it’s been designed to be cheap and accessible, and thus will never make as much money as some of the alternatives. But the in the end, a cheap and accessible vaccine is the only thing that can work globally, and global vaccination is the only way to stop endless variants emerging, thus is the only way to get this situation under control.

But in a nutshell - they all work.

All the scientists say they are all fantastic.
"Arguing over which vaccine you want is like arguing over which colour parachute you want to jump out of a burning plane with"

That's what I thought, I googled but there is so much conflicting data out there.

Does anyone else have any concrete data on how the vaccines compare?

OP, the data is coming in all the time, as pp said. The trials measured slightly different things and were run differently, so you can't compare across trials. We are now seeing real-world data pour in from the UK and Israel, and it all looks really encouraging. As others said, there will be some differences. Compiling a comparison would be a mighty work and will be more or less instantly out of date as new information is published almost daily.

I guess it will be while before we see any real life data coming through until all vaccines are fully in use etc.

I just find it interesting and I do also wonder why AZ has been getting such bad press 🤷‍♀️

www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccine-comparison

The trials measured slightly different things and were run differently, so you can't compare across trials

This. To take one example - the Pfizer vaccine trials looked only at whether the vaccine prevented symptomatic Covid. The AZ ones looked at both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. The reason for the difference is that AZ is not-for-profit and so they wanted accurate results, whereas Pfizer are making money from their vaccine and so wanted results that looked as good as possible.

Politics also comes into it. AZ was one of the first vaccines to be ready and some countries are kicking themselves that they didn't get in quickly with a big order, like the UK did. Discrediting it is a good way to avoid backlash from their citizens about it. "Oh yes, the UK have vaccinated a lot of people, but their vaccine is rubbish - it's worth waiting longer for the better one than we chose..."

It does seem political, hence me asking for unbiased stats.

My dh has had Pfizer, I've had az, I'm on day three of flu type symptoms.. heavy limbs, headache etc. But I'm pleased I have had it and I'm pleased my body is showing side effects as to me that means I'm building immunity. I do hope everyone takes up their offer of a vaccine if they can.

Summary of ' hoow well it works' from the above link from a pp

Pfizer-BioNTech

How well it works: 95% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in those without prior infection. The researchers report that the vaccine was equally effective across a variety of different types of people and variables, including age, gender, race, ethnicity, and body mass index (BMI)—or presence of other medical conditions. In clinical trials, the vaccine was 100% effective at preventing severe disease.

Oxford-AstraZeneca
How well it works: An early review of Phase 3 trials showed 70% efficacy starting after the first dose, and 100% protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death after the second dose. The analysis also showed the potential for the vaccine to reduce asymptomatic transmission of the virus by as much as 67%.

Novavax
How well it works: 89.3% efficacy

Johnson and Johnson
How well it works: 72% overall efficacy and 86% efficacy against severe disease in the U.S.

Modena
How well it works: 94.1% effective at preventing symptomatic infection in people with no evidence of previous COVID-19 infection. The vaccine appeared to have high efficacy in clinical trials among people of diverse age, sex, race, and ethnicity categories and among persons with underlying medical conditions (although as mentioned above, the efficacy rate drops to 86.4% for people ages 65 and older).

They also vary a bit on how well each works on different variants

The most important thing right now is that as many people as possible are vaccinated, all the vaccines licensed reduce disease (and probably transmission but we're still working on that data). The mRNA vaccines (BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna) were the fastest to market and can respond quickly to variants but they are very expensive. AZ and the other cheaper vaccines will be the ones that vaccinate the world. In another couple of years there will be sufficient data to determine which vaccine is 'best' and at that point the richest countries will start concentrating on using those vaccines for boosters. But at the moment be glad you live in a country that was sensible about procurement and has an effect distribution system.

I had mine this morning and was googling the same thing earlier. I may well have read stuff wrong but some of the studies seem to indicate that although Oxford has a lower effectiveness rate in terms of stopping you catching it (as opposed to Pzifer for example), you are less likely to need hospitalised as a result.

So az has the lowest efficency

The AZ vaccine has 100% efficacy at preventing severe disease, hospitalisation & death. Those are pretty good odds. I really don't care if I have a bit of a cold.

I think there has been so much bad press about the Az plus a Google on trials etc shows that Oxford has 64% efficiency compared to the other vaccines which are over 95%.

You got a vaccine - be fucking happy. Such a bloody first world problem.

You cannot just say "efficacy" without specifying WHAT you mean.

Vaccines NEVER prevent infection - they just prompt your immune systems to respond MUCH quicker to an infection.

If the immune response is fast enough, you eliminate the virus before you have sufficient to test +ve.

Not quite as fast, and you can test +ve, but never get symptoms

Slower and you get symptoms, but not serious illness.

Somewhere in there there is the point where you mop it up before you are contagious.

At present ALL the vaccines are known to prevent serious illness/death pretty equally - 95%+

We won't know which one is best for months .

The other thing to remember is that the early trial stats ( which is what the comparison above is largely based on) may be alter in real life settings - and very positively at the moment it looks like all the vaccines perform very well from the vaccination programs. As others have said we won’t know for many months.

I follow this person on Twitter - assuming they are telling the truth they are a scientist who worked on Moderna but post about all the vaccines and are very positive about all the vaccines. I find them very helpful to follow for collating all the data and being balanced ( and positive)

mobile.twitter.com/sailorrooscout

Tbh it’s truly amazing we have such efficacious vaccines in such a short space of time.

@Dementedswan

I think there has been so much bad press about the Az plus a Google on trials etc shows that Oxford has 64% efficiency compared to the other vaccines which are over 95%.

You've got to compare the methodology to compare the results. Oxford/AZ monitored for asymptomatic infection during their trial, Pfizer didn't. That's why Pfizer's initial results looked better.

PHS real world data suggest a single dose of Oxford/AZ looks more efficient than a single dose of Pfizer at preventing hospitalisation in the over 80s here. PHE's results don't see such a big difference but both had very good results, you can't really decide between them at the moment.

As my (doctor) sister said, the best vaccine is the one you can get!
She also said take a vitamin D supplement.
The Astrazeneca's efficacy is on par with Pfizer.

Thanks helpful post

Keep an eye on the reports from the Zoe Symptom Tracker app team. They are collecting data as their users get vaccinated. They have already published data on side effects following the two vaccines, and in time will be able to publish real world effectiveness data.

But as PP have said - both vaccines are phenomenally effective in the real world.