Filenews 30 October 2021
In a recent publication in the international journal "The New England Journal of Medicine" the vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 of the companies Pfizer and AstraZeneca offer adequate protection against the mortality of the delta strain of the virus.
The data were taken from the UK, namely data from 5.4 million people to determine the efficacy against mortality of the delta strain of vaccines from April 1 to August 16, 2021.
The Doctors of the Therapeutic Clinic of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Theodora Psaltopoulou, Panos Malandrakis, Giannis Danasis and Thanos Dimopoulos (Rector of the University of Athens) summarize the publication. A total of 114706 people tested positive for the virus, while unvaccinated people were usually younger and had fewer comorbidities than those vaccinated.
Data by age group
In the 16 to 39 age group, no deaths were recorded in the 7180 vaccinated people who became ill, but 17 deaths were recorded out of the 35449 unvaccinated people who became ill respectively. In the 40 to 59 age group, the efficacy of AstraZeneca's vaccine against mortality was 88%, and 95% of the Pfizer vaccine.
The corresponding percentages for those over 60 were 90% and 87%. Overall, for the delta strain the effectiveness of the vaccines in terms of mortality 14 days after the second dose was 90% for the Pfizer company's vaccine and 91% for AstraZeneca.
In another recently published study, the Pfizer company's vaccine was very effective in young people and adolescents 12 to 18 years of age for the delta mutation. In the group of young people, the effectiveness of the vaccine against COVID-19 and symptomatic disease was 59% and 57% on 14 to 20 days from the first dose, 66% and 82% on days 21 to 27 from the first dose and 90% and 93% on days 7 to 21 from the second dose respectively. These data point to the high efficacy of the Pfizer company's vaccine in adolescents for the delta strain, with similar efficacy to the 88% estimated for the general population.
