A recent study by Israel’s largest health care provider found that after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, people are 94% less likely to have symptomatic COVID-19 infections and 92% less likely to have severe illness due to the virus, reports the Reuters.
Why does it matter: Israel has been rapidly vaccinating its population, and the new study highlights how effective the vaccine is, as the data almost matches Pfizer’s phase three clinical trial, which showed that the vaccine is 95% effective.
Where is it: According to Reuters, Clalit, the health system that covers most Israelis, compared 600,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine against a group of the same size with corresponding medical histories who have not yet received the vaccine.
- Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science have reported a decline in hospitalization and serious illnesses in people 55 and older.
- “This shows unequivocally that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in the real world a week after the second dose, just as it was discovered in the clinical study,” said Ran Balicer, director of innovation at Clalit.
- The data also indicate that the Pfizer vaccine is “even more effective two weeks or more after the second injection”.