TEL AVIV: Latest Israeli data show a 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 infections among 600,000 people who received two doses of Pfizer Inc. vaccine. and BioNTech SE, which offer important new knowledge to other countries as they present their own campaigns.
According to a study by Clalit, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, the vaccinated group was 92% less likely to develop serious illnesses due to the disease. Clalit compared 600,000 people who received the shots with a group the same size as no, in what was the largest vaccine study in the country to date.
Clalit said the study, which was conducted with a team from Harvard University, included 430,000 people between the ages of 16 and 59 and 170,000 from 60 or older. It was the first of its kind to show such a high level of efficacy for the Pfizer vaccine for people 70 years of age or older, due to the limited scope of clinical trials, according to the healthcare provider.
The study was done so that each vaccinated individual was tested against an unvaccinated person who had a similar profile, including their level of risk of infection, the level of risk of developing serious illness, and general health.
“It is now unequivocal that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is incredibly effective in real life a week after the second dose, as found in the clinical study,” said Ran Balicer, head of innovation at Clalit and one of the study’s authors, in a Hebrew statement published Sunday with the study. The vaccine is even more effective two weeks after the second shot, he added.