An initial dose of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech reduces the risk of coronavirus infection, Public Health England announced on Monday when Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, planned to relax the closure rules.
According to the information released when Johnson started speaking in Parliament about health workers under the age of 65, one dose of the vaccine from the American pharmaceutical Pfizer PFE,
and its partner BioNTech BNTX,
reduces the risk of catching infection by more than 70% and increases to 85% after the second dose.
For older than 80 years, one dose is 57% effective against the symptomatic COVID-19 disease after three or four weeks of vaccination, which rises to more than 85% after the second dose.
Early data suggests that people who are vaccinated who become infected are much less likely to die or be hospitalized, Public Health England added.
The United Kingdom was the first country to start administering the Pfizer – BioNTech vaccine. So far, the vaccination campaign has focused on the elderly and prominent health professionals.
The UK is also unique in choosing to delay the administration of second-dose Pfizer – BioNTech up to 12 weeks. Pfizer’s own trials indicate an interval of 21 days between dosing.
The health agency said there was ‘good’ evidence giving the second dose of the vaccine from drug company AstraZeneca AZN.
and the University of Oxford would later lead to much higher levels of protection. Johnson said it was too early in the campaign to provide solid information about the vaccine.
Public Health Scotland has separately stated that its own research finds that the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization by up to 85%, and the AstraZeneca – Oxford vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization by up to 94%.
The importance of these studies is that it was done in the real world, as opposed to the controlled studies controlled by the drug manufacturers.