Pfizer Oxford Vaccines Reduce Severe COVID-19 in Elderly

Pfizer Oxford Vaccines Reduce Severe COVID-19 in Elderly

The Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines for COVID-19 are highly effective in reducing severe coronavirus infection among people 70 and older, according to a study. The research, published as a preprint and yet to be peer-reviewed, estimated the effect of both COVID-19 vaccines on the laboratory-confirmed symptomatic disease in people aged 70 and over in England.

The researchers, including those from Public Health England (PHE), compared the rate of hospitalization and deaths in confirmed COVID-19 patients older than 80 years who were vaccinated more than 14 days before testing positive, with unvaccinated cases.

Data suggest that in the 1980s, a single dose of either vaccine is more than 80 percent effective in preventing hospitalization, about 3 to 4 weeks after jab, PHE said in a statement.

Evidence from the Pfizer vaccine suggests that it leads to an 83 percent reduction in deaths from COVID-19, he said.
The data also shows that symptomatic infections in those older than 70 years decreased by about three weeks after a dose of both vaccines.

“Vaccination with a single dose of Pfizer or the COVID-19 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was associated with a significant reduction in symptomatic positive cases of SARS-CoV2 in older adults with even greater protection against severe disease,” the authors said. of the study, and added both vaccines show similar effects.

They said protection was maintained for more than six weeks of follow-up, and there is a clear effect of both vaccines against the worrisome UK variant.

Experts say the new analysis adds to growing evidence that vaccines are working and highly effective in protecting people against serious illness, hospitalization and death.

“This adds to mounting evidence showing that vaccines are working to reduce infections and save lives,” Mary Ramsay, PHE’s director of immunization, said in the statement. “While there is much more data to follow, this is encouraging and we are increasingly confident that vaccines are making a real difference,” Ramsay said.

However, he warned that protection is not complete and it is not yet known how much these vaccines will reduce the risk of someone transmitting the coronavirus to others.