A first dose of the vaccine made by Pfizer and BioNTech reduces the risk of coronavirus infection, Public Health England announced Monday, as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed plans to relax lockdown rules.
According to the data released when Johnson began speaking in Parliament, on health workers under the age of 65, one dose of the vaccine from the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer PFE,
and its partner BioNTech BNTX,
reduces the risk of infection by more than 70%, increasing to 85% after the second dose.
For subjects over 80 years of age, one dose is 57% effective against symptomatic COVID-19 disease after three or four weeks of vaccination, and increases to more than 85% after the second dose.
Early data suggests that vaccinated people who become infected are much less likely to die or be hospitalized, Public Health England added.
The UK was the first country to start administering the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. So far, the vaccination campaign has focused on the elderly and primary health care workers.
The UK is also unique in choosing to delay the administration of second Pfizer – BioNTech doses for up to 12 weeks. Pfizer’s own studies suggest an interval of 21 days between doses.
The health agency said there is “good” evidence for the second dose of the vaccine from pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca AZN,
and the University of Oxford will later lead to much higher levels of protection. Johnson said it was too early in the campaign to provide hard data on that vaccine.
Public Health Scotland said separately that its own research shows that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization by up to 85%, and the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization by 94%.
The importance of these studies is that they have been conducted in practice, unlike the controlled studies controlled by the drug makers.