Two Pfizer doses ‘are 99.96% effective’: Double jab weeks apart prevents almost ALL cases of Covid-19, research in Israel suggests
- Israeli research has found that just 0.04 per cent of those vaccinated with both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine went on to develop coronavirus
- Of the 700,000 people vaccinated, just 300 later contracted Covid-19, with only 16 requiring hospital treatment, according to preliminary data
- The vaccine also protects against the more infectious UK variant, research suggests
Almost all cases of Covid are prevented with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, research suggests.
Data gathered in Israel – which is leading the world in the vaccine rollout – found that just 0.04 per cent of those vaccinated with both doses went on to develop coronavirus.
Of 700,000 people who were vaccinated, just 300 later contracted the virus, with only 16 requiring hospital treatment, according to preliminary data released by Israeli health officials.
The vaccine also protects against the more infectious UK variant of Covid-19, the research suggests.
Professor Eyal Leshem, an Israeli infectious diseases specialist, said the reports were ‘very good news’. He added: ‘The initial findings are quite incredible.
Almost all cases of Covid are prevented with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, research suggests. Data gathered in Israel – which is leading the world in the vaccine rollout – found that just 0.04 per cent of those vaccinated with both doses went on to develop coronavirus. Pictured: A man receives a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel on Tuesday
‘After one dose, the cases fell substantially and after two, there were just 0.4 per cent.
‘Time will tell, we still need to accumulate data but these are very encouraging preliminary reports.’
More than 30 per cent of Israel’s population has received a vaccine, with several studies into its effectiveness under way.
Professor Leshem added: ‘On one hand, we’re seeing very high community transmission rates with 1,000s of cases every day – the highest rates we’ve experienced since the beginning of the outbreak.
‘But when we look specifically at these hundreds of thousands of Israelis that are vaccinated, they don’t get infected.
Pictured: Health workers from the Maccabi Health vaccination centre administer doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine inside the car park of the Givatayim mall in Tel Aviv, Israel on Tuesday
‘And even in those few cases that get infected, they experience a mild disease – only a handful need to go to the hospital, only a handful experienced severe disease and needed to be admitted to the hospital.
‘It’s what we call real life, ecologic evidence of vaccine efficacy – the high efficacy of the vaccine.’
The majority of those vaccinated were over 60, making the results even more remarkable, he added.
Initial studies have also found a significant reduction in cases among those who have had one dose of the vaccine.
Israel is providing Pfizer with weekly data updates on its vaccine campaign under as part of a collaboration agreement.
- Iran is to buy the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine via the back door despite banning ‘untrustworthy’ British vaccines, a leaked document has revealed. Iran banned vaccines from the UK and US on January 8, but in a dramatic U-turn, the nation is said to be buying 36 million doses of the Oxford vaccine through India.