Israel’s COVID-19 tsar has warned that a single dose of Pfizer vaccine may be less effective than indicated by the drugmaker.
Nachman Ash – Israel’s equivalent of dr. Anthony Fauci – said the protection of the first dose ‘is less effective than we thought’, reports Army Radio.
“Many people are infected between the first and second injection of the vaccine,” Ash said, adding that the protective effect was “lower than [the data] offered by Pfizer. ”
The pharmaceutical giant has claimed that trials show that it is about 12 percent effective about 12 days after receiving the first survey, reports the BBC.
But the protection level rises to about 95 percent about two weeks after the second dose.
It is unclear exactly how effective the shot was for the more than 2 million Israelis who have already received the first dose.
Questions have been raised about the workings of the vaccine after health officials announced 10,000 new cases on Monday, the highest since the pandemic began.
Experts have repeatedly warned that one dose of the vaccine does not provide full immunity and that social distance measures must still be needed to control the pandemic.