Pharmacist Murtaza Abdulkarim (L) administers a dose of the AstraZeneca / Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at a temporary vaccination center, equipped with pharmacists and pharmacist assistants, at the Al-Abbas Islamic Center in Birmingham, West Midlands, on February 4th. , 2021.
Scarff Oils | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – Early real-world data from the UK inoculation program has given an idea of the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines.
The vaccine developed by the Pfizer vaccine and BioNTech was the first shot to be approved and launched in the UK in December. Over-80s, health workers and nursing home staff were the first in line to be immunized. It was soon followed by the shot developed by the British AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
Below are four graphs that summarize the effectiveness of these vaccines and how they are playing their role in the fight against the pandemic:
Falling deaths to those over 85 years
Because the elderly were the first to be vaccinated, it is noted that covetous deaths fall more rapidly in these age groups. The following graph shows deaths from Covid in Scotland, with a decline observed in the over-85 age group just as the vaccination program began to pick up pace. Click here for full details.
An increase in antibodies
A blood test study published last week by Imperial College London showed that almost 14% of the British population have antibodies against coronavirus. While this does not necessarily mean immunity, what was interesting were the results of people who had been vaccinated and the high level of their antibodies. 18,000 study participants of 155,000 people had been vaccinated and the results are shown in the table below. Click here for full details.
A separate study in England has shown that the highest percentage of people who test positive for antibodies were those aged 80 and over, with 41%, who statisticians said was “probably due to the high rate of antibodies. vaccination in this group “.
The real-world effectiveness of Pfizer’s shot
Public Health England examined in detail the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to date in protecting against symptomatic diseases. The following graph shows that a dose is 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic Covid-19 disease in people over 80 years of age (from 28 days after the first dose).
Vaccine efficacy is calculated using a mathematical statistic called odds ratio, click here for complete data and methodology.
… and the AstraZeneca vaccine
Public Health Scotland also collected data on the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for all age groups. The graph shows that, in the fourth week after receiving a first dose, Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines were shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization for Covid-19 by up to 85% and 94%, respectively. . Click here for complete data and methodology.
Since the start of vaccination launches, the UK has immunized all four of its top priority groups. It now aims to vaccinate all those over 50 in mid-April and all adults in late July, two months earlier than the previous target.
As of Sunday, more than 20 million people have received the first dose of vaccine and nearly 800,000 have received both doses, according to government data.
The UK vaccination program has been widely hailed as a triumph in the midst of tragedy; the United Kingdom has been the fifth largest number of infections worldwide, after the United States, India, Brazil and Russia, with more than 4.1 million registered infections and 123,083 deaths, the fifth figure of highest deaths in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.
—Bryn Bache of CNBC contributed to this article.