New data from more than 600,000 vaccinated Israelis revealed that the Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective, with only 21 vaccinated people ending up in the hospital with COVID-19.
Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel’s second largest healthcare provider, released a press statement showing the vaccine’s remarkable results in the real world. While still preliminary, it gives hope to those who were not convinced by the clinical trials conducted last year by Pfizer and BioNTech.
The data was derived from observing about 602,000 of Maccabi’s members who were at least one week past their second dose of the vaccine. Among them, 7 were hospitalized with severe symptoms, 3 with moderate symptoms, and 11 with mild symptoms.
All of the hospitalized members were over age 50, and half of them had a chronic health condition, such as morbid obesity, according to Ido Hadari, a Maccabi spokesman.
The recent findings are similar to data released earlier this week by Israel’s largest healthcare provider, which found the vaccine was 94% effective. Pfizer’s clinical trial showed about the same efficacy.
