Unvaccinated people currently account for most new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S., but a small proportion of cases are in vaccinated people; these cases are known as breakthrough infections. But is there a difference in how often people get breakthrough infections depending on which vaccine they got?
The short answer is, we don’t know exactly, but there are some hints in the data. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine does seem to have higher rates of breakthrough infection than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but that was expected based on the results of clinical trials. Some very early hints show a slightly lower rate of breakthrough infections with the Moderna vaccine than with the Pfizer vaccine, but that early finding is based on data on a few million people from only two locations and thus may not represent the overall picture in the country.
Because no vaccine is 100% effective, breakthrough infections have been expected from the start of the vaccine rollout. In the context of clinical trials, about 0.04% of people given the Pfizer vaccine got infected with SARS-CoV-2, versus about 0.07% with Moderna and 0.59% with Johnson & Johnson.
Now that the vaccines are authorized, scientists have the chance to track how many breakthrough infections occur in the real-world, beyond clinical trials. When breakthroughs do occur, most people experience mild symptoms, if they fall ill at all, and a small percentage develop severe disease, require hospitalization or die, current data suggests.
The recent rise of the highly-transmissible delta variant might raise the risk of breakthrough infections, though. For example, a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study, published Aug. 6 as a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) report, found that the delta variant surged in Mesa County, Colorado between May and June; at the same time, the county accrued a “significantly higher” proportion of breakthrough cases compared with other Colorado counties, where delta was less prevalent.
Reporting of breakthrough infections now falls largely on the states, and of the 25 or so states that report breakthrough infections, most don’t yet provide data on the number of cases linked to each vaccine brand, Live Science found in a search of state health department websites.
However, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C., do make this information public. These data could provide “early signals” regarding how well the vaccines are working, particularly as new variants emerge, the DC Health website states. That said, there are many limitations: The data sets are small, each vaccine was given to different numbers of people and the timing of the doses makes it hard to interpret the data.
Still, as of Aug. 1, more than 299,000 D.C. residents had been fully vaccinated, according to data from DC Health. Of these people, nearly 151,000 received the two-dose Pfizer vaccine, about 124,700 got the two-dose Moderna vaccine and about 24,000 received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
In this population, the highest rate of breakthroughs was seen in those who got the Johnson & Johnson shot: 77 people, or 0.32% of the roughly 24,000 recipients. The second highest rate was seen among Pfizer recipients, of whom 308 people, or 0.2%, tested positive for the virus. Finally, 161, or 0.13%, of the Moderna recipients caught a breakthrough infection.
These numbers include asymptomatic, mild, moderate and severe breakthrough cases. Some people with asymptomatic or mild infections may not get tested, so their cases would be missed, meaning this is probably an undercount of breakthroughs.
As of Aug. 2, more than 1.5 million Oklahomans had been fully vaccinated, according to a report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. About 817,000 had received Pfizer shots, 674,000 received Moderna and 102,000 got Johnson & Johnson. Again, the Johnson & Johnson recipients showed the highest rate of breakthrough cases, with 215, or 0.21%, testing positive for the virus; 1,468 Pfizer recipients, or 0.17% of the total, caught a breakthrough infection; and 831 Moderna recipients, or 0.12%, tested positive for the virus.
These snapshots from Oklahoma and D.C. likely offer an incomplete picture of breakthrough cases in each region, however, and for now, it’s unclear if the observed patterns are representative of the country as a whole. To accurately compare the vaccine brands, particularly with the delta variant still running rampant, we simply need more data, Robert Darnell, a physician scientist at The Rockefeller University in New York, told National Geographic.
That said, other preliminary research also suggests Moderna’s vaccine offers more protection against the delta variant than Pfizer’s, which could help explain the differences in breakthrough rates, Reuters reported. One study, posted Aug. 8 on the preprint database bioRxiv, included more than 50,000 patients in the Mayo Clinic Health System and found that the Moderna vaccine’s real-world effectiveness fell from 86% to 76% between January and July, when delta gained prominence. In the same time window, Pfizer’s effectiveness fell from 76% to 42%.
However, that study has not been peer-reviewed yet, so the results still need to be confirmed.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
