The Latest in COVID-19 News: Week Ending Apr. 3

By the Editors

This week, Pfizer-BioNTech reported that their COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was 91.3% efficacious against symptomatic illness diagnosed between 1 week and 6 months after the second vaccine dose. The companies also reported data showing 100% vaccine efficacy in children aged 12 to 15 years.

In other vaccine news, the CDC published real-world effectiveness data on the two mRNA vaccines: the effectiveness of one dose was shown to be 80% and two doses, 90%.

Meanwhile, a mix-up at a large manufacturing plant in Baltimore resulted in contamination of 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, calling into question future vaccine shipments.

And finally, a U.K. study showed that patients discharged following a hospital stay for COVID-19 are at increased risk for mortality, readmission, and organ dysfunction. In particular, 12% of patients died during follow-up — a rate 7.7 times higher than in population controls.

Catch up on these and all of our COVID-19 stories from the past week at the links below.

What Our Editors Had to Say

Andre Sofair, MD, MPH: The news that I find most encouraging this week is the longer-term efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination as well as the longer-term safety data.