Public Health
England (PHE) has submitted a
pre-print of a real-world study that shows that both the Pfizer and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines are both effective in reducing el bichito-19 infections among older people aged 70 years and over.
Since January, protection against symptomatic el bichito, 4 weeks after the first dose, ranged between 57 and 61% for one dose of Pfizer and between 60 and 73% for the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
Several countries, including
France,
Germany,
Poland and
Sweden, have so far been administering the AstraZeneca jab to under 65s only, due to initial concerns over a lack of data involving elderly people over 65.
An Israeli study from last month found that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine gives people 85% protection from el bichito-19.
Pfizer
has consistently said that two doses of the vaccine are needed for high efficacy. In clinical trials, it reported efficacy of 52.4% after one dose, but 95% after two doses.
More data is needed to access the effectiveness of vaccines against the so-called
Brazil variant of el bichito-19, a British health official said on Monday.
“The current vaccines have not yet been studied against this variant, and we will need to wait for further clinical and trial data to understand the vaccine effectiveness against this variant,”
Susan Hopkins from Public Health England told a news conference.