Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine was 93% effective against COVID-19, a leading healthcare provider in Israel announced.
It appears that the results show that the shot works as hoped in a large number of people, giving rise to the hope that vaccination of vaccines will succeed around the world.
Maccabi Healthcare Services said about 520,000 people were immunized with both the required doses of Pfizer’s shot.
It was found that only 544 people subsequently contracted coronavirus seven or more days after receiving their second dose.
Fifteen people were hospitalized and four people had serious illnesses, but no one was killed, Maccabi was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel.
Maccabi said it had reached its 93% mark by comparing the vaccinated group with a large control group of unvaccinated people.
The age group of those vaccinated does not appear in the Times of Israel report. It is clear that if there are not so many older people – who are more vulnerable to severe COVID-19 – in the sample, the finding is less significant.
“These data unequivocally prove that the vaccine is very effective and we have no doubt that it saved the lives of many Israelis,” senior Maccabi official Dr Miri Mizrahi Reuveni was quoted as saying by the Times of Israel report.
More than 700,000 people in Israel have been infected with COVID-19 and more than 5,000 deaths have occurred, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Pfizer’s vaccine has been found to be 95% effective in protecting against symptomatic coronavirus in clinical trials. Israel is by far the best example of its achievements in the real world, as its vaccination process began early and has already reached more than a quarter of its population.
The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised that the whole country will be fully immunized by March.
Israel has acquired eight million doses of Pfizer vaccine and six million Moderna transactions in advance, which apparently paid the double rate of European countries to ensure a reliable supply.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 2.3 million Israelis have been vaccinated – about 27% of the population of 9 million people, which is higher than anywhere else in the world.
Pfizer monitors Israeli input on a weekly basis for insights that can be used worldwide, including whether it works against more contagious variants, reports Reuters.
So far it has been shown to work against the variant first identified in the United Kingdom, but it is less clear for the variant found in South Africa.
“We have so far identified the same effectiveness of 90 to 95% against the British tribe,” Hezi Levi, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health, told Reuters. “It is too early to say anything about the South African variant.”