Nachman Ash says first dose of Pfizer is less effective than indicated

A single dose of Pfizer’s vaccine may be less effective than the drugmaker had indicated, the Israeli czar COVID-19 warned.

Nachman Ash – the Israeli equivalent of Dr Anthony Fauci – said the protection offered by the first dose is “less effective than we thought,” Military Radio reported.

“Many people got infected between the first and second injection of the vaccine,” Ash said, adding that the protective effect appears to be “less than [the data] presented by Pfizer. “

The pharmaceutical giant claimed that trials show it to be around 52% effective around 12 days after receiving the first injection, the BBC reported.

But this level of protection rises to 95% about two weeks after the second dose.

It is not known exactly how effective the vaccine was for the more than 2 million Israelis who have already received the first dose.

Questions have been raised about the vaccine’s performance after health officials announced 10,000 new cases on Monday, the highest since the start of the pandemic.

Experts have repeatedly warned that a dose of the vaccine does not confer full immunity and that social distancing measures will still need to be in place to bring the pandemic under control.