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General: The first vaccine is 57% effective in preventing disease Israel today

2021-02-25T00:10:17.513Z


| health Clalit's research institute published the results of the study on the effectiveness of corona vaccines • Two weeks after the first dose there is a 62% reduction in the chance of developing a serious illness During the night (Wednesday to Thursday), the Clalit Research Institute published final results from a large study conducted among 1.2 million vaccinated and non-vaccinated people, regarding t


Clalit's research institute published the results of the study on the effectiveness of corona vaccines • Two weeks after the first dose there is a 62% reduction in the chance of developing a serious illness

During the night (Wednesday to Thursday), the Clalit Research Institute published final results from a large study conducted among 1.2 million vaccinated and non-vaccinated people, regarding the effectiveness of vaccines against corona.

The study and its results were published in the leading scientific journal The New England Journal of Medicine, which show that the first vaccine dose provides 57% efficacy in preventing disease and a 62% reduction in serious illness. 

Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon, Newsenders

The extensive study is the first of its kind to be published in world scientific literature, and was conducted at the Clalit Research Institute in methodological collaboration with researchers from Harvard University. The study examined data on about 600,000 people vaccinated in Israel, compared to about 600,000 unvaccinated people who were control groups.

The study provides for the first time a comprehensive picture, in an advanced research method that has been peer-controlled, of the effectiveness of the vaccine against the corona virus in a mass vaccination - after the first dose and after the second dose.

The results show that two weeks after the first dose, a 57% reduction in morbidity, a 62% reduction in serious illness and a 72% reduction in mortality were observed.

21-27 days after the first vaccine (the period in which in the vast majority of cases the second vaccine dose is also given) a reduction in morbidity was observed by 66%, a reduction in serious illness by 80% and mortality by 84%.

After a full vaccination, that is, a week after the second dose of the vaccine, corona morbidity rates decreased by 94% and severe disease rates by 92%, as already reported last week.

It should be noted that this study is of great importance when it comes to each country's vaccination strategy - whether it is better to vaccinate as many citizens as possible in one vaccine dose, or to focus on risk groups and their two-dose vaccination.

The sample size also made it possible to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine for specific subpopulations.

In terms of age groups, vaccine efficacy was found to be similar in different age groups, including those aged 70 and over.

Among the subgroup of vaccinated with 3 or more background diseases, the vaccine was found to reduce corona morbidity by 89% compared to 94% in the general population.

During the entire study period (up to the beginning of February 2021), 10,561 corona cases were documented in the study populations, of which 5,996 were cases of symptomatic morbidity, 369 hospitalizations, 229 cases of severe morbidity and 41 deaths.

According to Professor Ran Blitzer, Director of the Clalit Institute for Research and Clalit's Innovation Division, "The study unequivocally shows that the vaccine is most effective in preventing coronary heart disease a week after the second dose, and provides only partial protection in earlier weeks after the vaccine. Pfizer's original clinical practice. The practical significance of the study is clear, and I urge anyone who has not yet been vaccinated to do so. The results are in line with recent trends in morbidity in Israel - a steady decline in hospitalization rates and severe morbidity in the first vaccinated elderly groups. Among the young age groups, in which the vaccine only started a few weeks later. "

The extensive size of the present study allows a detailed assessment of vaccine efficacy in preventing a wider range of outcomes (documented infection, morbidity, hospitalization, morbidity and mortality), over different time periods and in subgroups of the population over a period of time ranging from vaccination in Israel. December 20, 2020 to February 1, 2021. During this time, the third wave of the corona also occurred, during which the British variant gradually became the dominant strain in the country.

Professor Mark Lifshitz, director of the Center for Contagious Disease Dynamics and a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health who co-authored the study said: "This is a particularly complex study to perform while performing rapidly advancing vaccines. Clalit's exceptional database has made it possible to design research that addresses these challenges in a way that provides great confidence in the research findings."

 The matching between the study groups was performed based on an extensive set of demographic, geographic, and health characteristics related to risk for serious illness, health status, and health behaviors.

Assignment to the study groups was performed dynamically based on the daily vaccine status, and approximately 85,000 individuals switched from the unvaccinated group to the vaccine group during the study period.

Sensitivity analyzes were performed to ensure that the estimated efficacy of the vaccine was not affected by possible biases.

 The study was conducted by Dr. Noa Dagan, Dr. Noam Barda, Dr. Eldad Kaftan, Oren Miron, Shai Parchik, Prof. Mark Katz and Prof. Ran Blitzer of the Clalit Research Institute, as well as Prof. Miguel Hernan and Prof. Mark Lifshitz of Harvard University School of Public Health, and Prof. Ben Rice of Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Source: israelhayom

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