Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine is looking 90% effective

In this file photo taken on July 22, 2020, Pfizer Inc. headquarters is seen in New York City. A vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was 90 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 infections in ongoing Phase 3 trials, the companies announced on November 9, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 09 November 2020
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Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine is looking 90% effective

  • The announcement was a rare and major piece of encouraging news lately in the battle against the virus
  • Wall Street breaks records at open on vaccine news

WASHINGTON DC: Pfizer said Monday that an early peek at the data on its coronavirus vaccine suggests the shots may be a robust 90% effective at preventing COVID-19, putting the company on track to apply later this month for emergency-use approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The announcement, less than a week after a presidential election that was seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis, was a rare and major piece of encouraging news lately in the battle against the scourge that has killed more than 1.2 million people worldwide, including almost a quarter-million in the US alone.
Pharmaceutical companies and various countries are in a global race to develop a vaccine against the virus.
“We’re in a position potentially to be able to offer some hope,” Dr. Bill Gruber, Pfizer’s senior vice president of clinical development, told The Associated Press. “We’re very encouraged.”
Monday’s announcement doesn’t mean a vaccine is imminent: This interim analysis, from an independent data monitoring board, looked at 94 infections recorded so far in a study that has enrolled nearly 44,000 people in the US and five other countries. Some participants got the vaccine, while others got dummy shots.

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Pfizer Inc. did not provide any more details about those infections and cautioned that the initial protection rate might change by the time the study ends. Even revealing such early data is highly unusual.
Authorities have stressed it’s unlikely any vaccine will arrive much before the end of the year, and initial supplies will be rationed.
“We need to see the data, but this is extremely promising,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, former chief of the FDA’s vaccine division. He ticked off many questions still to be answered, including how long the vaccine’s effects last and whether it protects older people as well as younger ones.
If Pfizer’s vaccine ultimately pans out, “it’s going to be a while before this has a major impact at the population level,” Goodman said.
Marylyn Addo, head of the tropical medicine unit at UKE hospital in Hamburg, Germany, said the interim results were “an interesting first signal,” but questions remain.
Global markets, already buoyed by the victory of President-elect Joe Biden, exploded on the news from Pfizer. Major markets in Europe, where infections have soared, were up 5%. In the US, Dow futures also rose 5% and were up about 1,400 points just over two hours before the opening bell.
Trump, who had suggested during the presidential campaign that a vaccine could be ready by Election Day, tweeted on Monday: “STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!”

Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said on CNBC that the election was always an artificial deadline and that the data was going to be ready when it was ready. The independent data monitors met on Sunday, analyzing the COVID-19 test results so far and notifying Pfizer.
“I am very happy,” Bourla said, “but at the same time, sometimes I have tears in my eyes when I realize that this is the end of nine months, day-and-night work of so many people and how many people, billions, invested hopes on this.” He added: “I never thought it would be 90%.”
Earlier this year, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said he would be happy with a COVID-19 vaccine that was 60% effective. Scientists have warned for months that any COVID-19 shot may be only as good as flu vaccines, which are about 50% effective and require yearly shots.
The coronavirus shots, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, are among 10 possible vaccine candidates in late-stage testing around the world — four of them so far in huge studies in the US Another US company, Moderna Inc., also has said it hopes to be able to file an application with the FDA later this month.
Volunteers in the final-stage studies, and the researchers, don’t know who received the real vaccine or a dummy shot. But a week after their second required dose, Pfizer’s study began counting the number who developed COVID-19 symptoms and were confirmed to have the coronavirus.
Because the study hasn’t ended, Gruber couldn’t say how many in each group had infections. But the math suggests that almost all the infections counted so far had to have occurred in people who got the dummy shots.
Pfizer doesn’t plan to stop its study until it records 164 infections among all the volunteers, a number that the FDA has agreed is enough to tell how well the vaccine is working. The agency has made clear that any vaccine must be at least 50% effective.
No participant so far has become severely ill, Gruber said. Nor could he provide a breakdown of how many of the infections had occurred in older people, who are at highest risk from COVID-19.
Participants were tested only if they developed symptoms, leaving unanswered whether vaccinated people could get infected but show no symptoms and unknowingly spread the virus.
FDA has told companies they must track half their participants for side effects for at least two months, the time period when problems typically crop up. Pfizer expects to reach that milestone later this month, but said Monday no serious safety concerns have been reported.
Because the pandemic is still raging, manufacturers hope to seek permission from governments around the world for emergency use of their vaccines while additional testing continues — allowing them to get to market faster than normal but raising concerns about how much scientists will know about the shots.
The FDA’s scientific advisers last month said they worry that allowing emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine could damage confidence in the shots and make it harder to ever find out how well they really work. Those advisers said it’s critical these massive studies are allowed to run to completion.


UK’s Starmer says net migration will fall significantly

Updated 11 sec ago
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UK’s Starmer says net migration will fall significantly

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised net migration would fall significantly by 2029 as he announced policies to boost skills and training.
“It’s (...) a white paper that deals with skills and training, and one of the reasons that we’ve had stagnant growth chronically in skills and growth,” he said on Monday.

India great Virat Kohli retires from test cricket

Updated 35 min 33 sec ago
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India great Virat Kohli retires from test cricket

  • Kohli, 36, announces retirement only days after Rohit Sharma stepped down from test cricket as well
  • He scored 9,230 runs including 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries at a test batting average of 46.85

NEW DELHI, India: India great Virat Kohli retired from test cricket Monday after playing 123 matches in his glorious 14-year red-ball career.

“As I step away from this format, it’s not easy — but it feels right,” Kohli posted on Instagram. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket. Honestly, I never imagined the journey this format would take me on. It’s tested me, shaped me, and taught me lessons I’ll carry for life.”

The 36-year-old Kohli’s retirement comes only days after Rohit Sharma stepped down from test cricket, taking two senior batters out of selection contention for India’s tour to England.

Kohli scored 9,230 runs including 30 centuries and 31 half-centuries at a test batting average of 46.85. He also led India in 68 test matches and was India’s most successful captain with 40 test wins.

Kohli said the traditions and ebbs and flows of the five-day format were special to him, including “the quiet grind, the long days, the small moments that no one sees but that stay with you forever.”

“I am walking away with a heart full of gratitude — for the game, for the people I shared the field with, and for every single person who made me feel seen along the way,” he wrote. “I will always look back at my test career with a smile. #269, signing off.”


India’s diplomatic ambitions tested as Trump pushes for deal on Kashmir

Updated 12 May 2025
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India’s diplomatic ambitions tested as Trump pushes for deal on Kashmir

  • India wary of third-party mediation, sees Kashmir as integral part of its territory
  • India’s clout on global stage has risen with its rapid economic growth

NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan have stepped back from the brink of all-out war, with a nudge from the US, but New Delhi’s aspirations as a global diplomatic power now face a key test after President Donald Trump offered to mediate on the dispute over Kashmir, analysts said.
India’s rapid rise as the world’s fifth-largest economy has boosted its confidence and clout on the world stage, where it has played an important role in addressing regional crises such as Sri Lanka’s economic collapse and the Myanmar earthquake.
But the conflict with Pakistan over Kashmir, which flared up in recent days with exchanges of missiles drones and air strikes that killed at least 66 people, touches a sensitive nerve in Indian politics.

How India threads the diplomatic needle — courting favor with Trump over issues like trade while asserting its own interests in the Kashmir conflict — will depend in large part on domestic politics and could determine the future prospects for conflict in Kashmir.
“India ... is likely not keen on the broader talks (that the ceasefire) calls for. Upholding it will pose challenges,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia analyst based in Washington.
In a sign of just how fragile the truce remains, the two governments accused each other of serious violations late on Saturday.
The ceasefire, Kugelman noted, was “cobbled together hastily” when tensions were at their peak.
Trump said on Sunday that, following the ceasefire, “I am going to increase trade, substantially, with both of these great nations.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for his part, has not commented publicly on the conflict since it began.
India considers Kashmir an integral part of its territory and not open for negotiation, least of all through a third-party mediator. India and Pakistan both rule the scenic Himalayan region in part, claim it in full, and have fought two wars and numerous other conflicts over what India says is a Pakistan-backed insurgency there. Pakistan denies it backs insurgency.
“By agreeing to abort under US persuasion ... just three days of military operations, India is drawing international attention to the Kashmir dispute, not to Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism that triggered the crisis,” said Brahma Chellaney, an Indian defense analyst.

For decades after the two countries separated in 1947, the West largely saw India and Pakistan through the same lens as the neighbors fought regularly over Kashmir. That changed in recent years, partly thanks to India’s economic rise while Pakistan languished with an economy less than one-10th India’s size.
But Trump’s proposal to work toward a solution to the Kashmir problem, along with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s declaration that India and Pakistan would start talks on their broader issues at a neutral site, has irked many Indians.
Pakistan has repeatedly thanked Trump for his offer on Kashmir, while India has not acknowledged any role played by a third party in the ceasefire, saying it was agreed by the two sides themselves.
Analysts and Indian opposition parties are already questioning whether New Delhi met its strategic objectives by launching missiles into Pakistan on Wednesday last week, which it said were in retaliation for an attack last month on tourists in Kashmir that killed 26 men. It blamed the attack on Pakistan — a charge that Islamabad denied.
By launching missiles deep into Pakistan, Modi showed a much higher appetite for risk than his predecessors. But the sudden ceasefire exposed him to rare criticism at home.
Swapan Dasgupta, a former lawmaker from Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, said the ceasefire had not gone down well in India partly because “Trump suddenly appeared out of nowhere and pronounced his verdict.”
The main opposition Congress party got in on the act, demanding an explanation from the government on the “ceasefire announcements made from Washington, D.C.”
“Have we opened the doors to third-party mediation?” asked Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh.
And while the fighting has stopped, there remain a number of flashpoints in the relationship that will test India’s resolve and may tempt it to adopt a hard-line stance.

 

The top issue for Pakistan, diplomats and government officials there said, would be the Indus Waters Treaty, which India suspended last month but which is a vital source of water for many of Pakistan’s farms and hydropower plants.
“Pakistan would not have agreed (to a ceasefire) without US guarantees of a broader dialogue,” said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a former foreign minister and currently chairman of the People’s Party of Pakistan, which supports the government.
Moeed Yusuf, former Pakistan National Security Adviser, said a broad agreement would be needed to break the cycle of brinksmanship over Kashmir.
“Because the underlying issues remain, and every six months, one year, two years, three years, something like this happens and then you are back at the brink of war in a nuclear environment,” he said.


US and China to publish details of ‘substantial’ trade talks in Geneva

Updated 12 May 2025
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US and China to publish details of ‘substantial’ trade talks in Geneva

  • Both sides agree to set up a joint mechanism focused on “regular and irregular communications related to trade and commercial issues,” says China's vice premier
  • WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed the progress in trade talks as important for the whole world, including the most vulnerable economies

GENEVA: The United States and China are set to provide details on Monday of the “substantial progress” made during talks in Switzerland over the weekend aimed at cooling trade tensions ignited by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
US Treasury Scott Bessent and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng and international trade representative Li Chenggang for closed-door talks in Geneva on Saturday and Sunday.
It was the first time senior officials from the world’s two largest economies have met face-to-face to talk trade since Trump slapped steep new levies on China totalling 145 percent, with cumulative US duties on some Chinese goods reaching a staggering 245 percent.
In retaliation, China has put 125 percent tariffs on US goods.
The increasingly ugly trade spat between Washington and Beijing has rocked financial markets and raised fears of a global economic slowdown and an inflationary spike in the United States.
Both sides sounded an optimistic note after the talks concluded on Sunday, without providing many specifics, with the Chinese delegation pledging to release a joint communique on Monday.
China’s He told reporters that the atmosphere in the meetings had been “candid, in-depth and constructive,” calling them “an important first step.”
The two sides have agreed to set up a joint mechanism focused on “regular and irregular communications related to trade and commercial issues,” Li told reporters at the briefing.
In a statement, the White House hailed what it called a new “trade deal” with China, without providing any additional details.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (L) and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer speak to the media after talks Chinese officials on tariffs in Geneva on May 11, 2025. (AFP)

“These discussions mark a significant step forward and, we hope, bode well for the future,” World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in a statement shortly after her own meeting with He.
“Amid current global tensions, this progress is important not only for the US and China but also for the rest of the world, including the most vulnerable economies,” she added.
Ahead of the talks at the discrete villa residence of Switzerland’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Trump signalled he might lower the tariffs, suggesting on social media that an “80 percent Tariff on China seems right!“
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that the United States would not lower tariffs unilaterally. China would also need to make concessions, she said.
“It’s definitely encouraging,” Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) vice president Wendy Cutler told AFP on Sunday after the talks had concluded.
“The two sides spent over 15 hours in discussions,” she said. “That’s a long time for two countries to be meeting, and I view that as positive.”
But, she added, “the devil will be in the details.”
The Geneva meeting comes days after Trump unveiled a trade agreement with Britain, the first with any country since he unleashed his blitz of global tariffs.
The five-page, non-binding deal confirmed to nervous investors that Washington is willing to negotiate sector-specific relief from recent duties. But Trump maintained a 10 percent levy on most British goods, and threatened to keep it in place as a baseline rate for most other countries.
“What we get in these talks is a beginning of the narrative, the beginning of a dialog,” Citigroup global chief economist Nathan Sheets said in an interview over the weekend, as the US-China talks were under way. “This is just the beginning of a process, getting the ball rolling.”
 


Vietnam, Russia agree to quickly sign nuclear power plant deal

Updated 12 May 2025
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Vietnam, Russia agree to quickly sign nuclear power plant deal

HANOI: Vietnam and Russia have agreed to quickly negotiate and sign agreements on building nuclear power plants in Vietnam, the two countries said in a joint statement.

“The development of the plants with advanced technology will strictly be compliant with nuclear and radiation safety regulations and for the benefit of socio-economic development,” they said in the statement, which was dated Sunday and followed a visit to Moscow by Vietnamese leader To Lam.