TEL AVIV – The latest data from Israel shows a 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 infections among 600,000 people taking two doses of Pfizer Inc. and received BioNTech SE’s vaccine, which provides important new insights to other countries as they launch their own campaigns.
According to a study by Clalit, Israel’s largest healthcare provider, the vaccine was also 92% less likely to develop serious diseases. Clalit compares 600,000 people who received the shots to a group of the same size who did not – in the country’s largest vaccine study to date.
Clalit said the study, conducted with a Harvard University team, included 430,000 people between the ages of 16 and 59 and 170,000 who were 60 or older. It was the first of its kind showing, according to the healthcare provider, the limited scope of clinical trials for Pfizer’s vaccine for those aged 70 and over.
The study was conducted so that each individual who was vaccinated was tested on a person who was not vaccinated, with a similar profile, including their risk level for infection, the risk level for the development of serious diseases and general health.
“It is now clear that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is incredibly effective in real life, one week after the second dose, just as found in the clinical study,” said Ran Balicer, head of innovation and one of the authors of Clalit, said a Hebrew statement published Sunday with the study. The vaccine is even more effective two weeks after the second shot, he added.