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Comment by ceejayoz | Hacker News Reader

This bit is incorrect:

> along with the lack of any information as to whether the vaccine has a meaningful effect on reducing transmission

There's substantial evidence coming out on his front. Not enough for the CDC to tweak recommendations yet, but I expect that in the next few months: https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-israel-va...

"Data analysis in a study by the Israeli Health Ministry and Pfizer Inc found the Pfizer vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech reduces infection, including in asymptomatic cases, by 89.4% and in syptomatic cases by 93.7%."

"More research is needed to draw a definitive conclusion, but the studies are among the first to suggest a vaccine may stop the spread of the novel coronavirus and not just prevent people getting ill."

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So far, there is one pre-print of a non-peer reviewed study suggesting this is the case.

As you (and the article) say, much more research is needed.

At least do me the favor of reading the link; "two Israeli studies" is in the very first sentence, and the second study is published:

> A separate study by Israel’s Sheba Medical Center published on Friday in The Lancet medical journal found that among 7,214 hospital staff who received their first dose in January, there was an 85% reduction in symptomatic COVID-19 within 15 to 28 days with an overall reduction of infections, including asymptomatic cases detected by testing, of 75%.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

edit: This just came across my feed, published today. See Fig 1 for a chart that doesn't need deep stats knowledge to understand.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2102153#.YFoyawOb...

> As shown in Figure 1A, the percentages of persons who became infected differed according to vaccination status, with infections in 234 of 8969 nonvaccinated employees (2.61%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.29 to 2.96), 112 of 6144 partially vaccinated employees (1.82%; 95% CI, 1.50 to 2.19), and 4 of 8121 fully vaccinated employees (0.05%; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.13) (P<0.01 for all pairwise comparisons).

> The effect of vaccination on the preservation of our workforce has been dramatic. We observed a greater than 90% decrease in the number of employees who are either in isolation or quarantine.

I read it. None of that says anything about how effective the vaccine is at reducing transmission.

"an overall reduction of infections, including asymptomatic cases detected by testing, of 75%"

It's right there.

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