Pfizer COVID-19 antibody diminishes transmission after one dose: UK study

Pfizer COVID-19 antibody diminishes transmission after one dose: UK study

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  • Source: Reuters

  • Date: 26 Feb,2021

A single dose of Pfizer and BioNtech’s COVID-19 vaccine cuts the amount of asymptomatic infections and might significantly lower the risk of transmission of this virus, results of a UK study discovered on Friday.

Researchers analysed results from tens of thousands of COVID-19 tests completed each week as part of hospital screenings of healthcare staff in Cambridge, eastern England.

“Our findings reveal a dramatic decrease in the rate of positive screening tests among pediatric health care workers after one dose of this Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine,” said Nick Jones, an infectious diseases expert at Cambridge University Hospital, who co-led the study.

After separating the test results from unvaccinated and vaccinated staff, Jones’ team discovered that 0.80 percent evaluations from unvaccinated healthcare workers were positive.

This compared with 0.37 percentage of tests from staff less than 12 days post-vaccination – if the vaccine’s protective effect isn’t yet fully established – and 0.20 percentage of evaluations from staff at 12 times or more post-vaccination.

This suggests a four-fold decline in the risk of asymptomatic COVID-19 disease amongst health care workers who have been vaccinated for over 12 days, and 75 percent protection, said Mike Weekes, an infectious disease specialist at Cambridge University’s department of medicine, who co-led the study.

The degree of esophageal disease was also halved in those vaccinated for less than 12 days, he said.

“This is fantastic news — the Pfizer vaccine not only provides protection from becoming sick from SARS-CoV-2, but also helps prevent disease, reducing the possibility of the virus to be passed on to others,” Weeks said. “But we have to bear in mind that the vaccine doesn’t give complete protection for everyone.”

Key real-world data published on Wednesday from Israel, which has conducted one of the world’s fastest rollouts of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, showed that two doses of the Pfizer shot cut symptomatic COVID-19 instances by 94 percent across all age groups, and severe illnesses by almost as much.

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