Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could be even more effective than previously thought, new data shows

Emerging data from Israel indicates that vaccines made by Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna, may be even more effective than previous clinical trial results suggested.

CNN Reports that the Israeli Ministry of Health has studied more than 700,000 fully inoculated people – that is, those who have received two doses of either vaccine – in the country and has seen only 0, 04 percent contract COVID-19 infection.

The results were debriefed to reporters by Sharon Alroy Preis, head of Israel’s health ministry, on Thursday. Israel has primarily used the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, which uses the same messenger RNA technology as Moderna.

The study, conducted in December 2020, observed 715,425 individuals vaccinated with one week of time between their second dose.

Only 317 people contracted COVID-19 after their inoculation, and 16 of those people were hospitalized.

The data from Israel used a larger population sample than the Pfizer and Moderna human trials, which collected information from about 75,000 participants.

While the new COVID-19 mutations worry medical experts and public health professionals, the Israeli study does not appear to have distinguished between people infected with the original COVID-19 strain and a new variant, such as the transfer to South Africa or the United Kingdom. .

Pfizer already has declared that its vaccine produces an immune response when tested against multiple strains of COVID-19, while Moderna is currently developing a booster vaccine to help bridge the gap between its original vaccine formulation and the challenges posed by newer variants of COVID-19.

Other drug companies are making progress with their new vaccine candidates. Thursday, Novavax has published test data suggesting an 89.8% effectiveness rate against the original COVID-19 strain, as well as a 60% rate against the more contagious South African variant of COVID-19.

Johnson & Johnson posted phase three test data Friday for their single injection vaccine candidates, showing an overall effectiveness rate of 66% in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 infections around 28 days after vaccination.