Pfizer jab 70 per cent effective against Omicron hospitalisation finds study
A South African study has revealed that two doses of Pfizer are 70 per cent effective against hospitalisation due to the Omicron Covid-19 strain.
The protection is consistent across age groups and in the face of a range of chronic illnesses said Ryan Noach, the chief executive officer of Discovery Health at a briefing earlier today. Pfizer is 33 per cent effective against infection by the omicron variant Bloomberg first reported.
The study considered data from 78,000 Covid-19 test results for omicron infections from between 15 November and 07 December in South Africa, the epicenter of the new outbreak.
The news closely follows the publication of a study by researchers from the University of Oxford which found that both the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are significantly less effective against Omicron than other variants.
Researchers monitored anitbody levels in people’s blood for 28 days after their second dose of either vaccine, they found that when omicron was introduced there was “a substantial fall” in the neutralizing antibodies that fight off Covid compared to the immune responses seen against earlier variants.
Scientists around the world are conducting scores of tests to try and quickly understand the highly infection Omicron variant.
Earlier today Dominic Raab confirmed that 10 people with the Omicron variant have been hospitalised in the UK.
Reportedly Pfizer’s new Covid pill is 70 per cent effective at reducing hospitalisations, but has not met its primary goal of reducing symptoms in at-risk patients. The pill is expected to retain its efficacy against the new variant.
Read more: Pfizer and BioNTech confirm third booster jab ‘neutralises’ Omicron