WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2021) The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine demonstrated 94 percent effectiveness in a study involving more than one million Israelis, half receiving the inoculation and the other half remaining unvaccinated, a report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) said.
The study paired each of 596,618 vaccine recipients to an unvaccinated control person, the report said on Wednesday.
"We matched vaccine recipients and controls on variables [such as] age, sex, sector (general Jewish, Arab, or ultra-Orthodox Jewish), neighborhood of residence, history of influenza vaccination during the preceding 5 years, pregnancy, and the total number of coexisting conditions," the report said.
Estimates for participants starting seven days after the second dose showed the vaccine 94 percent effective in preventing symptomatic coronavirus infections, the report added.
Data for the trial was provided by Clalit Health Services (CHS), the largest of four integrated health care organizations in Israel, which insures more than half of the nation's population, according to the report.
Results from the Israeli study nearly match the 95 percent effectiveness rate estimated in a phase 3 clinical trial that persuaded the US food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine in December.
