TEL AVIV: a single shot of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE is 85% effective in preventing symptomatic disease between 15 and 28 days after being administered, according to an Israeli study, a development that could help guide policymakers to set vaccination priorities worldwide .
Some governments are debating whether to delay the second shot of the recommended dose regimen to make the most of the shortage of vaccines.
The Israeli study, conducted by the government-owned Sheba Medical Center and published on Friday, also found a 75% reduction in all Covid-19 infections, symptomatic or asymptomatic, after the first shot. The expert-reviewed study was published in the British medical journal Lancet as correspondence, meaning it represents the views of the authors and not the journal.
The data used were collected on the center’s 9,109 health workers, who began their vaccination process from 19 December.
“This is the first study to evaluate the efficacy of a single dose of vaccine in real-life conditions and show early effectiveness, even before the second dose is administered,” said Professor Eyal Leshem, director of the Sheba Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases and one of the study’s authors.