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First the elderly: vaccination against Covid-19 (archive image)
Photo: Martha Asencio Rhine / dpa
The corona vaccinations from Moderna and Biontech / Pfizer reduce the risk of hospital admissions for the elderly very significantly, according to new data from the US health authority CDC.
Two weeks after the second dose, the risk of having to go to hospital with a severe course of Covid-19 is 94 percent lower for people aged 65 and over than for people of the same age but not vaccinated, the CDC said on Wednesday.
Just two weeks after the first dose, the risk is reduced by 64 percent.
The data comes from 24 hospitals in 14 US states and is one of the first surveys worldwide outside of clinical studies.
There is now also data from Great Britain and Israel that were collected under real conditions.
417 people were included, including 187 Covid-19 patients and 230 people for control purposes.
Almost half of them were over 75 years old.
As expected, the first vaccination did not provide any protection within the first two weeks.
In the United States, more than 80 percent of people aged 65 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine.
Most of the vaccinations were carried out with the funds of the US manufacturer Pfizer and its German partner Biontech as well as that of the US manufacturer Moderna.
The CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky described the data as "encouraging" and "promising".
They confirmed the knowledge gained in the clinical studies under real conditions.
kry / dpa