It Works: Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel announced that of the half million people fully vaccinated against COVID, only 544 – or 0.104% – have been diagnosed with coronavirus. Full story
Impressive data on the effectiveness of the Pfizer covid vaccine continued to emerge Thursday when Maccabi Healthcare Services in Israel announced that of the half-million people to whom it has given both doses, only 544 – or 0.104% – have been diagnosed with coronavirus.
An Israeli health care provider who vaccinated half a million people with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine says only 544 people – or 0.1% – were later diagnosed with the coronavirus, there have been four serious cases, and no people have died. , Times of Israel reports.
That means that the effectiveness rate is 93 percent, Maccabi Healthcare Services announced on Thursday.
Full protection for people vaccinated is believed to begin a week after the second shot, so Maccabi’s data pertains to all those members who are seven or more days after receiving that second dose, Times of Israel reported.
Maccabi’s statistics are closely monitored around the world as they provide the first significant insight into how the vaccine is performing outside of the clinical trials. And they are widely acclaimed for indicating that the real-world effectiveness is close to the 95% efficacy reported after Pfizer’s clinical studies.
“These data prove unequivocally that the vaccine is very effective and we have no doubt that it has saved the lives of many Israelis,” said senior Maccabi official Dr. Miri Mizrahi Reuveni after the new data release.
She emphasized that of those who have been vaccinated and become infected, the vast majority have experienced the coronavirus mildly. Of the 523,000 fully vaccinated people, 544 were infected with COVID, of whom 15 had to be hospitalized: eight are in mild condition, three in moderate condition, and four in severe condition.
“Anyone who hasn’t been vaccinated so far hurry up and make an appointment as soon as possible,” she said. “Protect yourself from serious illness and, God forbid, death, as well as the possibility of infecting and endangering others.”