Why you can't compare Covid-19 vaccines
11,099,568
Published 2021-03-20
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In the US, the first two available Covid-19 vaccines were the ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. Both vaccines have very high "efficacy rates," of around 95%. But the third vaccine introduced in the US, from Johnson & Johnson, has a considerably lower efficacy rate: just 66%.
Look at those numbers next to each other, and it's natural to conclude that one of them is considerably worse. Why settle for 66% when you can have 95%? But that isn't the right way to understand a vaccine's efficacy rate, or even to understand what a vaccine does. And public health experts say that if you really want to know which vaccine is the best one, efficacy isn't actually the most important number at all.
Further reading from Vox:
Why comparing Covid-19 vaccine efficacy numbers can be misleading: www.vox.com/22311625/covid-19-vaccine-efficacy-joh…
The vaccine metric that matters more than efficacy: www.vox.com/22273502/covid-vaccines-pfizer-moderna…
The limits of what vaccine efficacy numbers can tell us: www.vox.com/21575420/oxford-moderna-pfizer-covid-1…
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All Comments (21)
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First time I see people being more afraid of a cure than the actual virus
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Im tired of politicians playing science when they know nothing
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This is what you call proper explanation of the vaccine efficacy statistics.
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Vox is really good at designing infographics that make complex topics more digestible. I appreciate all the effort!
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props to that mayor though for wanting the best for his people and having change of mind when he realized he's wrong
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Whoever framed how to tell this educational story in seven minutes deserves praise. If that team sees this, well done!
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For the first time in history, the ineffectiveness of a medication is being blamed on those who have NOT taken it.
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Kudos to your team on the use of simple graphics to help communicate learning.
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Good on mayor for accepting the facts when educated about it. Some people will double down instead of admitting they were wrong.
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A politician changing their mind because they were wrong? How refreshing.
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J&J is going to really enjoy this video.
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I swear when I did science in school the teacher always used to drill into our heads "Make sure the variables are equal in each trial." Then again, it's probably not ethical to lock people alone in controlled rooms, vaccinate them, and spray covid in there .
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Now broadcast this to any TV channels on any county and let's get this over with.
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Not sure why other news outlets aren't explaining this. This is important to know.
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This video should be on the television as a PSA during every single commercial break!!!!
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J and J is no longer available in the USA. Providers are told to discard all remaining vials.
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"Statistics is the grammar of science." Shows how critical it is to understand the meaning of these numbers.
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Honestly huge respect for the Mayor for backing down instead of the typical political move of dying on a hill for no reason.
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6:38 This is the best advise one can get.
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search: vaccine comparison result: why you can't compare vaccine
