Study found that people who get the Pfizer vaccine are 94% less likely to develop COVID-19 symptoms.
Israeli researchers found that people who are fully vaccinated are 92% less likely to develop serious cases.
The study compared 600,000 vaccinated with the same group of unvaccinated people, Reuters wrote.
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People who receive the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine are much less likely to develop symptomatic or severe COVID-19, according to a new study from Israel.
Researchers from Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit, looked at 600,000 Israelis who received two doses of Pfizer shots.
They reported a 94% drop in symptomatic coronavirus infections – when patients developed symptoms such as fever or shortness of breath – among people who were vaccinated compared to those who did not, Reuters reported Sunday.
Read more: ICE does not intend to vaccinate 13,860 immigrants in custody against COVID-19. Here’s how one of the USA’s most dangerous groups falls through the cracks.
The preliminary study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, also found that people who were fully vaccinated were 92% less likely to develop severe COVID-19 requiring hospitalization, intensive care or a ventilator.
‘Extremely effective in the real world’
An Israeli military paramedic is preparing a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to an elderly person on January 7, 2021, at a medical center in Ashdod, southern Israel.
Tsafrir Abayov / AP Images
In December, Pfizer reported that the vaccine was 95% effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus infections during clinical trials. The new Clalit study highlights the effectiveness among the general public outside of a controlled trial.
“It shows unequivocally that a week after the second dose, Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in the real world, just as it appears in the clinical study,” Ral Balicer, head of innovation at Clalit, told Reuters .
He added that the vaccine is even more effective two weeks after the second shot.
Clalit Health Services covers more than half of Israel’s patients, which can make it easier for Clalit researchers to compare vaccines and vaccines.
They compared the 600,000 people who received two doses of Pfizer vaccine to a group that was not so vaccinated. Both groups had similar medical histories.
According to the Wall Street Journal, 430,000 of the people were between the ages of 16 and 59, and 170,000 were 60 years or older.
So far, Israel has completely vaccinated 28.5% of its population. This is more than any other country.
Clalit’s recent research is the largest vaccine study in the country to date.
