A groundbreaking study promoted by researchers at the University of Oxford and the Autonomous University of Barcelona has concluded that the Pfizer vaccine has reduced the mortality of residential users by 98%, and the possibility of being hospitalized with 97% after the second dose.
The research, published in the scientific journal ‘The Lancet’, is the first worldwide study of the clinical efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine in nursing homes and also shows that the effect on nursing home workers has resulted in a 95% reduction in infections. in health, 92% in resident staff and 88% in the elderly.
The study, in which the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Northeast) also participates, was signed, among others, by the professor of the Statistical Center of Medicine at the University of Oxford, Daniel Prieto-Alhambra; the Minister of Health of Catalonia, Josep Maria Argimon; and the person responsible for vaccination in Catalonia, Carmen Cabezas.
In addition, the paper specifies that the first dose already generates a reduction in the number of infections by between 50 and 60% in the entire sample studied, as Daniel Prieto-Alhambra pointed out in statements to a radio station.
The sample of the survey includes 28,594 residential users in Catalonia, 26,238 employees of these centers and 61,951 health workers.
The researchers also explain that while the vaccines have proven effective in clinical trials, more research needs to be done in routine settings and in groups of populations typically underrepresented in study samples.
On the other hand, The results clarify that when analyzing the data from the first 12 days after the first vaccination, a period when the dose should not have a significant effect, there are also reductions of 15 to 20% in infections, indicating other uncontrolled factors that the phenomenon.
However, the study makes it clear that the final results are the result of a two-month follow-up and that the sample will in any case be further examined to obtain new long-term results in the future.
The researchers stress that the findings “should reassure the public about the main benefits of the ongoing vaccination campaign in Spain and elsewhere.”
The study also cites other studies with similar results, such as one conducted in Scotland among the general population, with an 85-94% reduction in the risk of infection, and another from England on hospital staff, which showed a 72% reduction. showed in single dose infections.
Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, for his part, has assured the results are important because “they make us think we have the ability to reduce the occurrence of residential cases and community transmission.”
The professor congratulated himself on the results: “They’re spectacular; it’s one of those graphs that you repeat three times to make sure you’re not wrong.”
Prieto-Alhambra has also said that, given the data from the first doses, “if the second dose is longer than the recommended three weeks, nothing happens because the risk of infection is already much lower.”