The UK believes that vaccines are 80% effective in preventing hospitalizations over the age of 80

LONDON (Reuters) – Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are more than 80% effective in preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations in people over 80 after a dose of both shots, Health Public England (PHE) said on Monday, citing a study -printed.

PHE said the real-world study also found that protection against symptomatic COVID in those over 70 ranged from 57-61% for a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to 60-73% for Oxford-AstraZeneca. four weeks after the first blow.

“These results may also help explain why the number of COVID admissions to intensive care units among people over the age of 80 in the UK has fallen to single figures in the last two weeks,” said British Health Minister Matt Hancock at a news conference. “This is very encouraging.”

The UK has now given a first dose of COVID-19 to more than 20 million people, or just over 30% of the population, with the elderly taking precedence.

PHE presented its analysis for peer review after providing initial findings of the real impact of the launch a week ago. A separate study of health care workers showed that a dose of vaccine can reduce the number of people taking COVID-19 asymptomatically by 70%.

The health authority said the evidence suggests that the Pfizer vaccine causes a 83% reduction in COVID-19 deaths among people over the age of 80. There were no equivalent data for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was started at a later date.

SAVING LIVES

PHE immunization chief Mary Ramsay said that while more needs to be done to understand the impact of vaccines in reducing coronavirus transmission, the effect of the launch has already been evident.

This adds to growing evidence that vaccines work to reduce infections and save lives, she said.

Another PHE official said more work was needed to determine the effectiveness of vaccines against the so-called Brazilian variant of coronavirus.

The UK’s use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the elderly contrasts with many European countries, which have cited a lack of data from clinical trials for their decision not to launch it in older cohorts.

Asked if the data justified the UK’s approach, England’s deputy director general, Jonathan Van Tam, said it was “not immunologically plausible” that the vaccine would work in younger people and not in the elderly.

“I thought it would almost certainly work,” he said. “PHE data clearly confirmed this approach today.”