Which Covid vaccine is really the most effective?

State of the art

Graffiti on Edvard Munch’s first version of ‘The Scream’ was revealed to be the work of the artist himself. There is a tradition of artists damaging their own work:

— In 2018, a Banksy, ‘Girl With Balloon’, was partially shredded moments after being sold for $1.4 million at Sotheby’s by a device fixed inside the frame.

— In 1920, Dadaist Francis Picabia arranged for his friend André Breton to rub out his chalk drawing, ‘Riz au Nez’, shortly after it went on display in Paris.

— In 1960, ‘Homage to New York’, a sculpture by Jean Tinguely, auto-combusted after going on display in the city’s Museum of Modern Art.

Calling the shots

A guide to those confusing efficacy rates for Covid vaccines:

PFIZER

— 95% effectiveness of two doses at reducing symptomatic infections in trials, from data analysed by US Food and Drug Administration, December.

— 90% effectiveness of two doses at reducing symptomatic infections, from Pfizer press release, 9 November.

— 85% rate by which hospitalisations were reduced 28-34 days after a single dose, from Scottish population-wide study, 22 February.

— 85% rate by which symptomatic infections reduced 15-28 days after single dose, from population-wide Israeli study.

ASTRAZENECA

— 94% reduction in hospitalisations 28-34 days after single dose, from population-wide Scottish study, 22 February.

— 90% fall in symptomatic infections after a half dose followed by a full dose, from Lancet paper, December.

— 70% fall in symptomatic infections after two doses (combined results from people given two full doses and people given a half dose followed by full dose), from trial results published in Lancet.

— 62.5% reduction in symptomatic infections after two full doses, from December’s Lancet paper.

Age gaps

Schools are to return on 8 March. Which age group had the most Covid-19 infections (symptomatic or asymptomatic) on 12 February?

Age two to school year 6 (nursery and primary) | 0.