JERUSALEM (Reuters) – The first major real-world study of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to be independently analyzed shows that the injection is highly effective in preventing COVID-19, at a potentially remarkable time for countries desperate to end blockages and reopen economies .
So far, most of the data on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines has come under controlled conditions in clinical trials, leaving an element of uncertainty about how the results would translate in the real world with their unpredictable variables.
Research in Israel – two months on one of the fastest launches in the world, providing a rich source of data – showed that two doses of Pfizer injection reduced symptomatic COVID-19 cases by 94% across all age groups, and illnesses bass in almost the same proportion.
The study of about 1.2 million people also showed that a single injection was 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic infections after two weeks, according to data published and reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday.
The results of the study for the Clalit Research Institute were close to those of clinical trials last year, which found that two doses were found to be 95% effective.
“We were surprised because we expected that in the real world scenario, where the cold chain is not maintained perfectly and the population is older and sicker, you will not get results as good as in controlled clinical trials,” senior study author Ran Balicer he told Reuters. “But we did and the vaccine worked well in the real world.”
“We showed that the vaccine is so effective in very different subgroups, in young and old, with no comorbidities and few comorbidities,” he added.
The study also suggests that the vaccine, developed by the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and BioNTech in Germany, is effective against the coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom. The researchers said they could not provide a specific level of effectiveness, but the variant was the dominant version of the virus in Israel at the time of the study.
The research did not shed light on how the Pfizer injection will fare against another variant, now dominant in South Africa, which has been shown to reduce the effectiveness of other vaccines.
‘THIS IS MORE GREAT NEWS’
Of the nine million people in Israel, a nation with universal health, almost half have received the first dose and a third have received both doses since the launch on December 19.
This made the country a prime location for a real-world study of the vaccine’s ability to contain the pandemic, along with its advanced data resources.
The study examined about 600,000 people vaccinated against the same control group as non-vaccinated people. Researchers at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital also collaborated.
“This is great news, confirming that the vaccine is about 90% effective in preventing documented infection of any degree of severity from 7 days after the second dose,” said Peter English, British government consultant on disease control communicable diseases.
“Recently studied earlier articles from Israel were observational studies. He used an experimental design known as a case-control study … giving greater confidence that the differences between the groups are due to their vaccination status, and not to some other factor.
The study published on Wednesday was the first review of a national vaccination strategy COVID-19 to be peer-reviewed. It also offered a more detailed view of how the vaccine was doing at weekly intervals, while comparing people who received the vaccine to non-vaccinated individuals with similar medical histories, sex, age and geographic characteristics.
Other research centers in Israel, including the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Israel Institute of Technology, have shared several studies in recent weeks that show that the vaccine is effective.
At least three studies in Israel have also suggested that the vaccine may reduce coronavirus transmission, but the researchers cautioned that broader studies should be conducted in order to draw clear conclusions.
GOT YOUR IMMUNITY PASS?
The latest data from the Weizmann Institute shows that a dramatic drop in the disease – which began this month with the first vaccinated age group, those over 60 – has now extended to the two subsequent groups to have completed both doses.
With the fall of infections in Israel, the country eased its third national blockade and reopened sectors of its economy, including shopping malls, stores, schools and many workplaces in the past two weeks.
Recreational spaces like theaters, gyms and hotels open on Sunday, but are only open to those considered immune – holders of a “Green Pass”, a document from the Ministry of Health available for download only by people seven days after the second dose or people who have recovered from COVID-19.
On Wednesday, Tel Aviv held one of the country’s first live concerts, after months of meetings being banned by coronavirus restrictions.
“This is so exciting, we are really happy to be here today. It is unbelievable after a year at home, it is great to go out and get to know a little bit of culture, ”said Gabi Shamir, 60, while sitting at the outdoor show.
Still, the vaccine’s effectiveness does not mean that the country will be free of the pandemic anytime soon. As in other parts of the world, a large proportion of the population is under the age of 16 – about a third in Israel – which means that they cannot yet be vaccinated, as there have been no results of clinical tests on children.
“It is definitely not the end of the pandemic,” said Eran Kopel, an epidemiologist at the University of Tel Aviv. “As soon as there is a safe vaccine for children in Israel and around the world, we can begin to say that we may be approaching collective immunity.”
Additional reporting by Rami Amichay in Tel Aviv and Kate Kelland in London; Written by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Pravin Char