The world’s first analysis of fully vaccinated patients indicated that the Pfizer vaccine is at least as effective as suggested by clinical trials.
Israel’s Maccabi Health Services revealed on Monday that only 0.015 percent of people were infected in the week after receiving the second injection.
Maccabi said it has 128,600 members who have seen seven days pass since the vaccine was fully protected – and only 20 contracted the coronavirus after being considered immunized.
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Lead immunologist Cyrille Cohen told The Times of Israel that among the general population, about 0.65% are infected in a given week.
A person receives the COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center operated by Tel Aviv Municipality with Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, January 19, 2021. (Miriam ALster / Flash90)
The Maccabi study lacked a control sample, but Cohen said that if Israeli society at large is treated as an “imperfect” control group, its calculation indicates that the vaccine is slightly exceeding the 95% effectiveness provided by the clinical trial from Pfizer.
“These are exciting results that confirm the assumption that the Pfizer vaccine is highly efficient,” he said.
“These results are very good, and if it continues like this, it may even be that the vaccine is more effective than Pfizer thought it would be based on clinical trials,” Anat Ekka Zohar, an analyst at Maccabi behind the research, told The Times of Israel.
“Although they are very early data, they are important data with wide relevance, as the whole world is looking to Israel for indications about the vaccine’s performance,” she said.
Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar Ilan University. (courtesy, Cyrille Cohen)
Cohen, a professor at Bar Ilan University, emphasized that his calculations comparing the results of Maccabi with the Pfizer study are inaccurate, as several details that were known about Pfizer guinea pigs are not sufficient for Israeli society as a whole.
“While these results are impressive, it is important to say that there is no direct control group or data on the demographic and geographical data of vaccinated people,” he said.
Ekka Zohar also noted that she found that none of the 20 vaccinees were hospitalized or suffered from a fever above 38.5 degrees. This could be an indicator that the vaccine prevents serious illness even when people are infected, she said, but added that it is impossible to know the path of their symptoms without the vaccine.