Two Pfizer doses ‘are 99.96% effective’: double jab weeks apart prevent almost ALL cases of Covid-19, research in Israel indicates
- Israeli research found that only 0.04 percent of those vaccinated with both doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine developed coronavirus.
- Of the 700,000 people who were vaccinated, only 300 later received Covid-19, with only 16 needing hospital treatment, according to preliminary data
- The vaccine also protects against the more contagious British variant, research shows
Research suggests that almost all cases of Covid are prevented with two doses of Pfizer vaccine.
Data collected in Israel – which is the world leader in vaccine vaccination – found that only 0.04 percent of those vaccinated with both doses developed coronavirus.
Of the 700,000 people vaccinated, only 300 later contracted the virus, and only 16 needed hospital treatment, according to preliminary data released by Israeli health officials.
The research also provides protection against the more contagious British variant of Covid-19.
Professor Eyal Leshem, a specialist in Israeli infectious diseases, said the reports were ‘very good news’. He added: ‘The initial findings are incredible.
Research indicates that almost all cases of Covid with two doses of Pfizer vaccine are prevented. Data collected in Israel – which is the world leader in vaccine vaccination – found that only 0.04 percent of those vaccinated with both doses developed coronavirus. Pictured: A man receives a dose of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in Tel Aviv, Israel on Tuesday
‘After one dose, the cases dropped significantly and after two, it was only 0.4 percent.
“Time will tell, we still have to collect data, but these are very encouraging preliminary reports.”
More than 30 percent of Israel’s population has received a vaccine, with several studies looking at its effectiveness.
Professor Leshem added: ‘On the one hand, we see very high transmission rates every day with 1,000 cases – the highest rates we have experienced since the beginning of the outbreak.
‘But if we look specifically at these hundreds of thousands of Israelites who are being vaccinated, they do not become infected.
Pictured: Maccabi Health Vaccination Center health workers give doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in the parking lot of the Givatayim Mall in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday.
‘And even in the few cases that become infected, they experience a mild illness – only a handful have to go to the hospital, only a handful of severe illness and need to be admitted to the hospital.
“This is what we call real life, ecological evidence of vaccine efficacy – the high efficacy of the vaccine.”
The majority of those vaccinated were over 60, making the results even more remarkable, he added.
Initial studies also found a significant decrease in cases among those who had one dose of the vaccine.
Israel offers Pfizer weekly data updates on its vaccine campaign as part of a co-operation agreement.
- Iran will buy the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through the back door, despite the ban on ‘unreliable’ British vaccines, a leaked document has revealed. Iran banned vaccines from the United Kingdom and the United States on January 8, but in a dramatic upheaval, the country buys 36 million doses of Oxford vaccine through India.