Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech announced Thursday morning that real evidence from the Israeli Ministry of Health shows that there have been “dramatically” fewer cases of Covid-19 and deaths among people in Israel who have been completely vaccinated with the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. with those who have not been vaccinated.
The latest analysis by the Israeli Ministry of Health is based on data collected between January 17 and March 6, according to the announcement. At that time, the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was the only Covid-19 vaccine available in the country and was dominated by the coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, first identified in the United Kingdom.
According to the announcement by Pfizer and BioNTech, the latest analysis by the Israeli Ministry of Health shows that two weeks after the second dose, the vaccine’s effectiveness was at least 97% in preventing symptomatic illness, hospitalization and death. The analysis also found that the vaccine was 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic Covid-19, in which asymptomatic infections
“We are extremely encouraged that data on actual efficacy from Israel confirm the high efficacy demonstrated in our Phase 3 clinical study and show the significant impact of the vaccine in preventing severe disease and death from COVID-19,” said Luis Jodar, Senior Vice President and chief medical officer at Pfizer Vaccines, the announcement said.
“Findings that suggest the vaccine may also provide protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections are particularly significant because we are looking to disrupt the spread of the virus around the globe,” said Jodar.
SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes Covid-19.
The announcement comes about two weeks after a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of symptomatic Covid-19 – that is, people who were infected with coronavirus and felt unwell – fell by 94% among those who received two doses of the vaccine. Even before the second dose, the effectiveness of the vaccine was close to 60%.
“This clearly demonstrates the power of COVID-19 to fight this virus and encourages us to continue even more intensely with our vaccination campaign. We aim to achieve even greater absorption in people of all ages, which gives us hope to regain the normal economy. and social function in the not-so-distant future, “Yeheskel Levy, director of the Israeli Ministry of Health, said in the announcement.
“When we started development last year, in January, our goal was to make a difference for people around the world and help end this pandemic,” said Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech. “One year after the WHO declared a pandemic, we now see that we are on track to achieve our goals.”
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said that Israeli data show that the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine prevents asymptomatic infection, and death is a message of hope one year after the declaration of a pandemic.
“I think it’s a great opportunity that on this day of the first anniversary of the declaration of a pandemic we have a message of hope,” Bourla told MegBC’s Meg Tirrell on Squawk Box.
Bourla explained that the data comes from a country where over 55% of the total population has been vaccinated.
The effectiveness so far in Israel is 97%, saying that “all three measures, mild illness, hospitalizations and deaths are 97% north of the effectiveness of the real world, with millions of people vaccinated.”
Perhaps most important of all, he said, it seemed to be 94% effective against asymptomatic transmission.
Bourla said this is important for society, “because asymptomatic carriers, asymptomatic patients are the ones who spread the disease mainly.”
“This is the first time we have come up with a confirmation of a real study of evidence of this magnitude,” he said.