People who were not vaccinated were 29 times more likely to die from COVID, according to the data.
The Pfizer vaccine is successful in preventing not only the symptoms of COVID-19, but also asymptomatic diseases according to new real-world data, the Israeli Ministry of Health and Pfizer / BioNTech announced on Thursday.
As for variants of COVID, and the companies behind the three authorized vaccines are rushing to test their shots against them, there is other promising news from Thursday’s announcement: this latest analysis was done when more than 80% of Israel’s COVID-19 cases were of the UK variant. B.1.1.7: Demonstrate that the Pfizer vaccine is equally effective against this variant, which is known to be more contagious and possibly even more deadly, as reported by the Israeli Ministry of Health.
The ad included key statistics related to an alarming form of virus spread, by asymptomatic people, who may not even know they are contagious. The Pfizer vaccine is so far 94% effective in preventing this type of infection, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health, encouraging news that the vaccine could help curb silent transmission.
Pfizer clinical trials were designed to measure the functioning of the two-dose vaccine to stop symptomatic cases of the disease, cases in which people knew they had the virus, including severe cases leading to hospitalization or death. Israel’s most recent announcement cites that the Pfizer vaccine is 97% effective in preventing such cases, which roughly matches the 95% effectiveness that Pfizer noted in its trials.
The latest data from Israel, yet to be reviewed, were collected two weeks after the administration of the second dose of vaccine, which reinforces the idea that both doses are necessary to achieve the full efficacy they report. And those who did not receive the vaccine were up to 44 times more likely to develop symptomatic disease and 29 times more likely to die from COVID-19.
“For people who have already been vaccinated, it’s another reason why it’s so important that we’ve already rolled up and received the vaccine,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of Infectious Diseases at South Shore Health. “And for those who doubt the vaccine, we hope data like this proves that these vaccines are incredibly effective not only in preventing serious disease, but also in significantly reducing infection. And if you can reduce infection, it will reduce transmission.”
Eric Silberman, MD, a resident physician in internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.