More good COVID-19 vaccine news today. The Wall Street Journal reports that following up on Monday’s favorable initial report on the phase three study of their COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer and BioNTech announced the final report on that study.

Pfizer Inc. said it will ask health regulators to authorize its experimental Covid-19 vaccine within days, after reporting the shot was 95% effective in its pivotal study and showed signs of being safe. The company’s plans, announced Wednesday, mean the shot is on track to go into distribution by the end of the year, if the regulators permit.

Pfizer and BioNTech said that of the nearly 44,000 adults in the U.S. and in other countries who took part in the study, 170 developed Covid-19 with at least one symptom. Out of those, just eight had taken the vaccine, while 162 had received a placebo. The resulting 95% effectiveness rate puts the shot’s performance on par with shingles and measles vaccines. It is also consistent with last week’s peek at how it did in an analysis of the first 94 subjects to fall sick.

The infected subjects included 10 severe cases of Covid-19, with nine in the placebo group and one in the vaccine group. The vaccine was effective across different ages, races and ethnic groups, and it was more than 94% effective in adults over 65 years old, the companies said. About 42% of the trial participants are from racial or ethnic minority groups, while 41% are ages 56 to 85, the companies said.

Moreover, medical device manufacturer Lucira Health announced today that

Late yesterday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the first prescription molecular diagnostic test for COVID-19 that can be performed entirely at home. The FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to Lucira Health, Inc. for its single-use, user-friendly COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit that can produce a positive or negative result at home within 30 minutes. Lucira’s test kit is differentiated by its simple ‘swab, stir and detect’ design. Clinical trials showed 100% of patients were successfully able to perform the Lucira test in about two minutes. That is significantly faster than labs which currently take two to seven days to generate similarly accurate test results. The Lucira™ COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit is expected to be available to patients served by Sutter Health in Northern California, and Cleveland Clinic Florida in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, in the near future. By early spring 2021, it is expected to be available nationally through health care providers.

Healthcare Dive indicates that the initial price for the test will be about $50.

Benefits Pro points us to a CIGNA report titled “Health and Wellness in Workplaces: What Works? ROI Analysis of Health and Wellness Interventions” which “is the largest global review of the impact of workplace wellness interventions, according to researchers.” Top line findings are that focused wellness programs deliver the greatest impact for employers and that mental health interventions yield the most significant return on the employer’s investment.

Fierce Healthcare reports that the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates is on the warpath against employer sponsored high deductible plans. “In 2010, about 25.3% of people were enrolled in a high-deductible plan, with that number rising to 40% in 2016.” The article overlooks the important fact that participating in such a plan is the key to opening a triple tax free health savings account.