... it may be too early to use 95% or any other number as the definitive effectiveness rate. Isn't that actually only the manufacturers' estimate of efficacy?
...
The 95% number derives from the data of the Phase III tests. The test protocols were designed by the FDA, not P or M. The tests were conducted by hospitals, universities, etc., not P or M. During the tests P and M had zero access to the accumulating data. P and M saw the data when the independent monitoring committee declared the the FDA-defined end-point had been met. So the database was limited, at the time, but "estimate" is tendentious and not very accurate.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it can take weeks for a person’s body to build up immunity after getting vaccinated.
Well, yeah, no efficacious vaccine includes a wave of a magic wand. Among the data collected during the Phase III tests was things like this, when a test participant who got the virus was exposed (before? between doses, etc.?). The FDA's test process doesn't end when a vaccine receives full approval. There is a post-approval Phase IV in which many recipients are tracked, a phase that continues for years. So as of Friday AM there were up to 27.88
M "participants" in these Phase IV tests.
Stop mudding up the waters with useless facts like that and the one where al virus's mutate in order to survive.
No, viruses' DNA stability is just loosey-goosey. What is
known, however is that the several vaccines (P, M, AZ, J&J, and Novavax) are effective against known SARS-CoV-2 variants. So Fauci's statement above is
hypothetical alarmist BS. And he knew it when he said it.