Pharmacist Murtaza Abdulkarim (L) gives a dose of AstraZeneca / Oxford Covid-19 vaccine to a patient at a temporary vaccination center, staffed by pharmacists and pharmacists’ assistants, at the Al-Abbas Islamic Center in Birmingham, West Midlands, on 4 February, 2021.
Oli Scarff | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – The first real data from the UK vaccination program provided insight into how effective vaccines against Covid-19 were.
The vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech Vaccine, was the first shot to be approved in the United Kingdom in December. The older than 80-year-olds, health care workers and staff in the care home were the first in line to be vaccinated. This was soon followed by the survey developed by the British AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.
Here are four maps that summarize how effective these vaccines are, and how they play their part in the fight against the pandemic:
Fall deaths at age 85
Since the elderly were first vaccinated, it is noteworthy that the deaths of Covid in those age groups fall the fastest. The table below considers Covid deaths for Scotland, with a decrease in the group of more than 85 years, just as the vaccination program began to fit. Click here for the full information.
A boom in antibodies
A blood test study published by Imperial College London last week found that almost 14% of the British population now have antibodies to the coronavirus. Although it does not necessarily mean immunity, the results of people who were vaccinated and how high their antibody level were were interesting. 18,000 participants in the 155,000 person study were vaccinated and the results are in the table below. Click here for the full data.
A separate study in England showed that the highest percentage of people who tested antibodies positively was aged 80 years and older, at 41%, which according to statisticians “was probably due to the high vaccination rate in this group.”
The actual effectiveness of the Pfizer shot
Public Health England has taken a close look at how effective the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has been so far against the symptomatic disease. The table below shows that one dose is 57% effective against the symptomatic Covid-19 disease in those older than 80 (from 28 days after the first dose).
The effectiveness of the vaccine is calculated using a mathematical statistic called a odds ratio. Click here for the full data and methodology.
… and the AstraZeneca vaccine
Public Health Scotland has also collected data on the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine for all age groups. The graph shows that by the fourth week after receiving the first dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines reduce the risk of hospitalization of Covid-19 by 85% and 94%, respectively. Click here for the data and complete methodology.
Since the start of the vaccination, the UK has vaccinated all of its top four priority groups. It is now aimed at vaccinating the entire 50-year-old by mid-April and all adults by the end of July, two months before a previous target.
As of Sunday, more than 20 million people had received their first dose of vaccine, and nearly 800,000 had received both doses, government data said.
The UK’s vaccination program is widely regarded as a triumph in the midst of tragedy; the UK has seen the fifth highest number of infections worldwide, after the US, India, Brazil and Russia, with more than 4.1 million infections and 123,083 deaths, the fifth highest death toll in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.
—CnBC’s Bryn Bache contributed to this article.