The study found that people who get the Pfizer vaccine are 94% less likely to develop symptomatic COVID-19.
Israeli researchers found that fully vaccinated people are 92% less likely to develop serious cases.
The study compared 600,000 vaccinated people to a group of the same size as unvaccinated people, Reuters wrote.
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People who receive the coronavirus Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are much less likely to develop severe or symptomatic COVID-19, according to a new study in Israel.
Researchers at Israel’s largest health care provider, Clalit, analyzed 600,000 Israelis who received two doses of the Pfizer injection.
They reported a 94% drop in symptomatic coronavirus infections – when patients develop symptoms such as fever or shortness of breath – among people who were vaccinated compared to those who were not, Reuters reported on Sunday.
Read more: ICE has no plans to vaccinize 13,860 immigrants in its custody against COVID-19. See how one of the most at risk groups in the United States is falling into the cracks.
The preliminary study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also found that people who were fully vaccinated were 92% less likely to develop severe COVID-19 that may require hospitalization, intensive care or a ventilator.
‘Extremely effective in the real world’
An Israeli military paramedic prepares a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to the elderly at a medical center in Ashdod, southern Israel, January 7, 2021.
Tsafrir Abayov / AP Pictures
In December, Pfizer reported that its vaccine was 95% effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus infections during clinical trials. The new Clalit study highlights this effectiveness among the general public outside a controlled testing environment.
“This shows unequivocally that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in the real world a week after the second dose, as was found in the clinical study,” Ran Balicer, head of innovation at Clalit, told Reuters.
He added that the vaccine is even more effective two weeks after the second injection.
Clalit Health Services covers more than half of Israel’s patients, which may make it easier for Clalit researchers to compare vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
They compared the 600,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine with an unvaccinated group of the same size. Both groups had similar medical histories.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 430,000 of those were between 16 and 59 years old and 170,000 were 60 or older.
So far, Israel has fully vaccinated 28.5% of its population. This is more than any other country.
Clalit’s recent research is the largest vaccine study in the country to date.
