I was listening to the Al Franken Podcast in late March. His guest for an hour was Andy Slavitt, so I obviously got a lot of information about Covid-19. He finally answered the question I had been asking for weeks. What does 95% efficacy actually mean? It does not mean that you have a 5% chance of getting Covid-19.
The actual percentage of vaccinated people in the Pfizer (and Moderna) trials who got Covid-19 was about a hundred times less than that: 0.04%. What this 95% actually means is that vaccinated people had a 95% lower risk of getting Covid-19 compared with the control group participants. In other words, vaccinated people in the Pfizer clinical trial were 20 times less likely than the control group to get Covid-19. Even more importantly, those that got it, got a mild case, and no hospitalizations or deaths were reported. In other words, this is one of the most effective vaccines that we have. Think of it as effective as polio, measles and mumps. Would you not get one of those vaccines?
Hopefully those that have been reluctant to get the vaccine will rethink their decision. This is not a political decision, it is an important health decision. For the sake of yourself, you family and friends, and the world, get vaccinated. For the good of us all, herd immunity is the way we get back to normal.
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