LONDON (AP) – Two UK studies released on Monday showed that COVID-19 vaccination programs are contributing to a sharp drop in hospitalizations, raising hopes that vaccines will work just as well in the real world as in studies carefully. controlled.
Preliminary results from a study in Scotland found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced hospital admissions by up to 85% four weeks after the first dose, while the Oxford-AstraZeneca injection reduced admissions by up to 94%. In England, preliminary data from a study with healthcare professionals showed that the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of contracting COVID-19 by 70% after one dose, which increased to 85% after the second.
“This new evidence shows that the jab protects you and those around you,” said UK health secretary Matt Hancock. “It is important to see as much evidence as possible about the vaccine’s impact on protection and transmission and we will continue to publish the evidence as we gather it. ”
The studies were released as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson outlined plans on Monday to ease a blockade that closed bars, schools and non-essential stores since early January. The launch of the vaccine is essential to return the country to some sense of normalcy. More than 17.5 million have received a dose of vaccine so far – more than a third of the UK’s adult population.
Britain had the most deadly coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with more than 120,000 deaths.
Public Health England said that its study with healthcare professionals suggests that the vaccine may help prevent the transmission of the virus, “because you cannot spread the virus if you do not have an infection.” The findings are based on the COVID-19 test performed every two weeks that detects infections regardless of whether someone has symptoms or not.
Broader tests in the general population showed that the Pfizer vaccine was 57% effective in preventing symptomatic diseases in people over 80, three to four weeks after the first dose. This increased to more than 85% after the second dose. Overall, hospitalizations and deaths should be reduced by more than 75% after a dose of the vaccine, Public Health England said.
The agency said it is still monitoring the impact of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but “the first signs in the data suggest that it is providing good levels of protection from the first dose.”
UK regulators authorized the widespread use of the AstraZeneca vaccine on December 30, almost a month after they approved the Pfizer vaccine.
The study in Scotland was conducted by scientists at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Strathclyde and Public Health Scotland.
Preliminary results were based on comparing people who received a dose of the vaccine and those who have not yet been inoculated. Data were collected between 8 December and 15 February, during which 21% of Scotland’s population received their first vaccine.
“These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic about the future,” said Professor Aziz Sheikh, director of the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh. “We now have national evidence – across the country – that vaccination offers protection against hospitalizations for COVID-19.”
About 650,000 people in Scotland received the Pfizer vaccine during the study period and 490,000 received the AstraZeneca injection, the Usher Institute said. As hospitalization data was collected 28 days after inoculation, data on hospital admissions came from a subset of 220,000 people who received the Pfizer vaccine and 45,000 who received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
External experts say that while the findings in Scotland are encouraging, they should be interpreted with caution due to the nature of this type of observational study. In particular, relatively few people were hospitalized after receiving vaccines during the study period.
Stephen Evans, professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, urged those who make political decisions about the pandemic to be cautious.
“It will be important that euphoria, especially from political sources that do not understand the uncertainty in numerical values, does not cause premature decisions to be made,” he said. “Cautious optimism is justified.”
Earlier this month, Israel reported encouraging results from people who received the Pfizer vaccine. Six weeks after starting vaccination for people over 60, there was a 41% drop in infections confirmed by COVID-19 and a 31% decline in hospitalizations, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
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