Pharmacist, Murtaza Abdulkarim (L) administers a dose of the AstraZeneca / Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at a temporary vaccination center, composed of pharmacists and pharmaceutical assistants, at the Al-Abbas Islamic Center in Birmingham, West Midlands, on 4 February, 2021.
Oli Scarff | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – The first real-world data from the UK’s inoculation program gave an idea of how effective vaccines have been against Covid-19.
The vaccine developed by Pfizer and the BioNTech vaccine was the first vaccine to be approved and launched in the United Kingdom in December. People over 80, health professionals and home care teams were the first in line to be immunized. Soon afterwards came the plan developed by the British AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Here are four charts that summarize the effectiveness of these vaccines and how they are playing their role in fighting the pandemic:
Fall in deaths over 85 years
As the elderly were the first to be vaccinated, it is noticeable that Covid’s deaths are decreasing more rapidly in these age groups. The graph below analyzes Covid’s deaths in Scotland, with a decline seen in the group over 85 years old as the vaccination program started to pick up pace. Click here for complete data.
A wave of antibodies
A blood test study published last week by Imperial College London showed that almost 14% of the British population now has antibodies to the coronavirus. Although this does not necessarily mean immunity, what was interesting was the results of the people who were vaccinated and how their antibody levels were. 18,000 study participants of 155,000 people were vaccinated and the results are shown in the graph below. Click here for complete data.
A separate study in England showed that the highest percentage of people who tested positive for antibodies were those aged 80 and over, 41%, which statisticians said was “probably due to the high rate of vaccination in this group”.
The effectiveness of Pfizer shooting in the real world
Public Health England analyzed in detail how effective the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been to date in protecting against symptomatic diseases. The graph below shows that a dose is 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic Covid-19 disease in people over 80 (from 28 days after the first dose).
The vaccine’s effectiveness is calculated using a mathematical statistic called the odds ratio. Click here for complete data and methodology.
… and the AstraZeneca vaccine
Public Health Scotland also collected data on the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for all age groups. The graph shows that, in the fourth week after receiving the first dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization for Covid-19 by up to 85% and 94%, respectively. Click here for the complete data and methodology.
Since the start of vaccination implementation, the UK has immunized all four of its priority groups as planned. The goal now is to vaccinate everyone over 50 by mid-April and all adults by the end of July, two months before the previous target.
As of Sunday, more than 20 million people have received their first dose of a vaccine and nearly 800,000 have received both doses, government data say.
The UK’s vaccination program was widely hailed as a triumph in the midst of the tragedy; the United Kingdom had the fifth highest number of infections worldwide, after the United States, India, Brazil and Russia, with more than 4.1 million registered infections and 123,083 deaths, the fifth highest number of deaths in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.
—Bryn Bache from CNBC contributed to this article.