A recent study by Israel’s largest healthcare provider found that after both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, people have a 94% lower risk of symptomatic COVID-19 infections and 92% fewer cases of serious illness due to the virus, Reuters reports.
Why it matters: Israel has been quick to vaccinate its population, and the new study underscores how effective the vaccine is, as the data is almost consistent with Pfizer’s phase three clinical trial showing the vaccine to be 95% effective.
Where it is: According to Reuters, Clalit, the health system that covers most Israelis, compared 600,000 people who received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine to a group of the same size with the same medical history who had not yet received the vaccine.
- Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science reported a decrease in hospital admissions and serious illness in people aged 55 and older.
- “It unequivocally demonstrates that Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is extremely effective in the real world one week after the second dose, just as it turned out in the clinical trial,” said Ran Balicer, Clalit’s chief innovation officer.
- The data also indicate that the Pfizer vaccine is “even more effective two weeks or more after the second injection.”