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THE Pfizer Inc. and The BioNTech SE Covid-19 vaccine appears to prevent the vast majority of recipients in Israel from becoming infected, providing the first indication in the real world that immunization will reduce coronavirus transmission.
The vaccine, which was launched in a national immunization program that started on December 20, was 89.4% effective in preventing laboratory-confirmed infections, according to a copy of a publication draft posted on Twitter and confirmed by a person familiar with working. The companies and the Israeli Ministry of Health worked together on the preliminary observational analysis, which has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The results, also reported in Der Spiegel, are the most recent in a series of positive data came from Israel, which gave more Covid vaccines per capita than anywhere else in the world. Almost half of the population received at least one dose of the vaccine. Separately, Israeli officials said on Saturday that the Pfizer-BioNTech injection was 99% effective in prevention of deaths by the virus.
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The first results in laboratory-confirmed infections are important because they show that the vaccine can also prevent asymptomatic carriers from spreading the virus that causes Covid-19, something that has not been clear until now. Interrupting transmission in this way is a key factor as countries seek to remove contact restrictions and reopen economies.
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Pfizer and BioNTech said they are working on a real-world analysis of Israel’s data, which will be shared as soon as it is completed. Spokesmen declined to comment on unpublished data.
Four-fifths of the virus cases in Israel during the study period, from January 17 to February 6, were the most transmissible strain first identified in Israel’s UK vaccination campaign that started just before the so-called B.1.1 . 7 variants emerged, feeding infections and leading to a third block on 8 January.
By February 6, about 27% of people aged 15 years or more in Israel were fully vaccinated, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being the only vaccine available in the country at the time. People were considered fully vaccinated and included in the analysis if the data collected occurred more than 7 days after receiving the second dose.
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