Early results from Israel – where over 40% of the population has had their first dose – show a significant fall in infection rates of coronavirus.
Israel’s vaccination programme shows that the Pfizer jab prevents 94% of symptomatic infections. This indicates the vaccine is performing just as well in a larger population as it did in the clinical trials.
It is proving highly effective at preventing illness and severe disease among all age groups, according to public health doctors.
Israel is the first country in the world to see the impact of its vaccination programme, but it took significant population coverage and several weeks to reach this milestone.
Israel’s largest health fund Clalit looked at positive tests in 600,000 vaccinated people and the same number of unvaccinated people, matched by age and health status.
It found 94% fewer infections among the vaccinated group.
Pfizer vaccine estimated 89.5% effective at preventing coronavirus INFECTIONS, whether symptomatic or not, according to new pre-print study conducted by Pfizer and Israel's Health Ministry. This would point to a huge cut in transmission. pic.twitter.com/o2yMJjccDE
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) February 18, 2021
