A new study released this Tuesday October 5, 2021 in the prestigious scientific The Lancet magazine confirms results from the previous research carried out by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Israeli Health Minister: two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine do protect for at least 6 months against severe Covid as caused by all variants enabling as much as possible to prevent patients from being hospitalized.
“Our results provide support for high effectiveness [Pfizer-BioNTech] against hospital admissions up until around 6 months after being fully vaccinated, even in the face of widespread dissemination of the delta variant”, Sara Tartof, main author of the study, told in the release of The Lancet.
To come to such conclusions, the study relied on medical data from 3.4 million people in South California between December 4, 2020 and August 8, 2021. In the detail, the study shows the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against infection risks decreases over time and moves from 88% the month following the injection of the second dose to 47% after 6 months. But the study also shows the vaccine remains 90% effective against Covid-related hospital admission risks, included in the event of Delta variant infection, for at least six months.
“Our variant-specific analysis clearly shows that the BNT162b2 vaccine is effective against all current variants of concern, including Delta. Covid-19 infections in people who have received two vaccine doses are most likely due to waning and not caused by delta or other variants escaping vaccine protection”, Dr Luis Jodar, senior vice president and chief medical officer, Pfizer vaccines, says.
