JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Pfizer Inc.’s first dose of COVID-19 vaccine is 85% effective, according to a study by health workers at an Israeli hospital, which could fuel a debate over the recommended dose schedule as governments try to extend it. supplies.
The findings of Sheba Medical Center are compared to the overall efficacy of 95% in a two-dose regimen 21 days apart for the shot developed with BioNTech of Germany.
Sheba’s study, which will be published in the medical journal The Lancet, comes a day after Canadian researchers suggested delaying the second dose of Pfizer given the high level of protection from the first shot to increase the number of people vaccinated.
His research showed an efficacy of 92.6% after the first dose, based on an analysis of documents submitted by the drug manufacturer from its final human trials in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December.
The FDA said that in December data from these trials showed that the vaccine began to confer some protection on recipients before they received the second vaccine, but more data would be needed to assess the potential of a single vaccine. dose.
Pfizer has said that alternative vaccine dosing regimens have not yet been evaluated and that the decision rested with the health authorities.
Sheba said among the 7,214 hospital officials who received their first dose in January, there was an 85% reduction in symptomatic COVID-19 within 15 to 28 days. The overall reduction in infections, including asymptomatic cases detected by testing, was 75%.
Sheba epidemiologist Gili Regev-Yochay warned that the cohort studied at the hospital was “mostly young and healthy.”
Unlike Pfizer’s clinical trial, “we don’t have many (staff) over 65 here,” he told reporters. But he also noted that Sheba’s study took place during an increase in COVID-19 infections in Israel, which flooded hospitals with new cases.
Pfizer declined to comment on the data, saying in a statement that it was doing its own analysis of “the real-world effectiveness of the vaccine in several parts of the world, including Israel.” He hopes to use Israeli data to examine the vaccine’s potential to protect against COVID-19 derived from emerging variants, the drug maker said.
Written by Dan Williams; Edited by Jane Merriman