A pioneering study promoted by researchers from the University of Oxford and the Autonomous University of Barcelona has concluded that the Pfizer vaccine has reduced the mortality of users of residences by 98%, and by 97% the possibility of being hospitalized after the second dose.
The research, published in the scientific journal ‘The Lancet’, is the world’s first work on the clinical efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine in geriatrics and also shows that the effect on residential workers has led to a decline in levels of 95% infections in health facilities, 92% in resident staff, and 88% in the elderly.
The study, in which the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (northeast) also participates, is signed, among others, by Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, Professor at the Statistical Center for Medicine at Oxford University; the Secretary of Public Health of Catalonia, Josep Maria Argimon; and the person in charge of vaccination in Catalonia, Carmen Cabezas.
In addition, the article specifies that the first dose already generates a reduction of infections of between 50 and 60% in the entire sample studied, as stressed by Daniel Prieto-Alhambra in statements to a radio station.
The study sample of the research includes 28,594 users of residences in Catalonia, 26,238 employees of these centers and 61,951 health workers.
The researchers also explain that, although vaccines have been shown to be effective in clinical trials, there is still more research to be done in routine settings and in groups of populations usually underrepresented in the study samples.
In the other hand, the results show that, analyzing the data for the first 12 days after the first vaccination, a period in which the dose should not have a significant effect, there are also reductions of 15 to 20% in infections, which it hints at other uncontrolled factors influencing the phenomenon.
However, the study clarifies that the final results are the result of a two-month follow-up and that, in any case, the sample will continue to be studied to obtain new long-term results in the future.
The researchers stress that the findings “should reassure the population about the main benefits associated with the ongoing vaccination campaign in Spain and elsewhere.”
The study also cites other work with similar results, such as one carried out in Scotland on the general population, with a reduction of between 85 and 94% in the risk of becoming infected, and another in England on personnel. hospital, which showed a 72% reduction in single-dose infections.
For his part, Daniel Prieto-Alhambra has assured that the results are important because “they make us think that we have the capacity to reduce the occurrence of cases in residences and community transmission.”
The professor congratulated the results: “They’re spectacular. It’s one of those graphs that you repeat three times to make sure you weren’t wrong.”
Prieto-Alhambra also said that, given the data from the first doses, “if the second dose is extended beyond the recommended three weeks, nothing happens because the risk of infection is already much lower.”