Sore throatsBut Pfizer’s trial reaches deeper into patients with mildly symptomatic cases. It officially counts even a coronavirus-positive patient with fever alone, one of the disease’s most common manifestations, as a symptomatic case.This may allow Pfizer to tally cases faster, but also could mean an early result based mostly on mild cases, according Airfinity’s Hansen.“We should really have hospitalizations or deaths as endpoints because ultimately we want to prevent people from getting seriously ill," he said.The rush for results may make it harder to get clear answers about how well the vaccines work, said Topol, the Scripps scientist.“We want to know this vaccine has strong efficacy," he said.