A single dose of the Pfizer vaccine may be less effective than the drugmaker had indicated, warned czar COVID-19 of Israel.
Nachman Ash – the Israeli equivalent of Dr. Anthony Fauci – said the protection offered by the first dose is “less effective than we thought,” reported Army Radio.
“Many people were infected between the first and the second injection of the vaccine,” said Ash, adding that the protective effect appears “less [the data] presented by Pfizer. “
The pharmaceutical giant said the tests show it is about 52 percent effective about 12 days after receiving the first injection, the BBC reported.
But that level of protection rises to 95 percent about two weeks after the second dose.
It is unclear exactly how effective the injection was for the more than 2 million Israelis who have already received the first dose.
Questions were raised about the vaccine’s performance after health officials announced on Monday 10,000 new cases, the largest since the pandemic began.
Experts have repeatedly warned that a dose of the vaccine does not provide full immunity and that social distance measures still need to be implemented to keep the pandemic in check.