Clalit survey of 1.2 million Israelis, half of them immunized, finds that shots drive down symptomatic COVID by 94%
Feb.14, 2021
A massive study by Israel’s largest health provider indicates that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 94 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, and 92% effective in averting serious cases of the disease.
The survey by the Clalit Health Services HMO compared 600,000 fully vaccinated individuals — 170,000 over 60 and 430,000 between the ages of 16 and 59 — with 600,000 unprotected Israelis. Believed to represent the largest such study in the world to date, it found the vaccine to be highly protective from both symptomatic infections and serious symptoms, shoring up previous studies on the shots.
“The previous studies dealt with infections, but not with symptoms and therefore can’t be compared to Pfizer’s clinical research,” said Dr. Ran Balicer, an epidemiologist who directs health policy planning at Clalit, in an interview with Channel 12. “Now, for the first time, we are comparing the vaccinated group with a control group with similar characteristics to see if the vaccine works ‘by the book.’”
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