In the week following the second injection of Pfizer vaccine, only 20 of 128,000 Israelis receive COVID



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The world’s first analysis of fully vaccinated patients indicated that the Pfizer vaccine is at least as effective as clinical trials suggest.

Israeli health services Maccabi revealed on Monday that only 0.015% of people were infected within a week of receiving their second injection.

Maccabi said it has 128,600 members who have seen seven days pass since starting full vaccine protection – and only 20 have contracted the coronavirus after being considered vaccinated.

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Senior immunologist Cyrille Cohen told The Times of Israel that among the general population, about 0.65% are infected in any given week.

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccine, at a vaccination center run by the Tel Aviv Municipality with Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov), Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, January 19, 2021 (Miriam ALster / Flash90)

The Maccabi study lacked a control sample, but Cohen said that while Israeli society in general is treated as an “imperfect” control group, its calculation indicates that the vaccine slightly exceeds the 95% effectiveness predicted by Pfizer’s clinical trial.

“These are exciting results that support the hypothesis that the Pfizer vaccine is very effective,” he said.

“These are very good results, and if it continues this way, the vaccine might even be more effective than Pfizer thought based on clinical trials,” said Anat Ekka Zohar, Maccabi analyst behind the research. , at The Times. Israel.

“Although this is very early data, it is important data of great relevance, as the whole world is looking to Israel for indications on the performance of the vaccine,” she said.

Cyrille Cohen, head of the immunotherapy laboratory at Bar Ilan University. (courtesy Cyrille Cohen)

Cohen, a professor at Bar Ilan University, pointed out that his calculations comparing Maccabi’s results to the Pfizer trial are inaccurate because various known details about Pfizer’s test subjects are lacking for Israeli society as a whole.

“While these are impressive results, it is important to say that there is no direct control group or data on the demographics and geographies of those vaccinated,” he said.

Ekka Zohar also noted that she found that none of the 20 vaccinated were hospitalized or had a fever above 38.5 degrees. This can be an indicator that the vaccine prevents serious illness even when people are infected, she said, but added that it was impossible to know what trajectory their symptoms would have taken without the vaccine.

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