VACCINES ARE TURNING THE TIDE
Covid-19 jabs ‘working spectacularly well’ in cutting hospitalisation risk, major study says
THE Covid-19 vaccines being used in the UK are working ‘spectacularly well’, a landmark Scottish study has found.
Four weeks after the initial dose, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine cut the risk of hospital admission by up to 94 per cent compared with those who had not been vaccinated.
People who received the Pfizer jab had a reduction in risk of being admitted to hospital of up to 85 per cent between 28 and 34 days after the first dose.
Scientists have stressed that a comparison between the two would not be ‘fair’ because the vaccines had been offered to different populations.
Experts examined Covid-19 hospital admissions in Scotland among those who had received their first jab and compared this with patients who had not yet received a vaccine.
The huge study looked at 1.14million people vaccinated between December 8 and February 15.
Data for the two jabs combined showed that among over-80s – who are at high risk of severe disease – the reduction in risk of hospital admission was 81 per cent four weeks after the first dose. The majority of older people in the study were more likely to have had the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab.
Scientists from the universities of Edinburgh, Strathclyde, Aberdeen, Glasgow and St Andrews, together with Public Health Scotland, looked at data on people who had received either the Pfizer jab or the vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Oxford with AstraZeneca.
Scientists said the evidence showed that the vaccines were ‘performing incredibly well’ and that they anticipate seeing similar results around the UK.
Lead researcher Professor Aziz Sheikh, director of the University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute, said: ‘These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future.
‘We now have national evidence – across an entire country – that vaccination provides protection against Covid-19 hospitalisations. We are overall very, very impressed with both these vaccines.’
Professor Sheikh added: ‘When we move beyond trial circumstances you never know what the results are going to be, but this is out in the field and both are performing incredibly well.’
He said that the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab had ‘predominantly’ been given to the elderly, adding: ‘At the moment, we don’t have the numbers to do these age analyses by different vaccine types, but we will have those soon.
‘But both of these [vaccines] are working spectacularly well – that said, we haven’t done a direct comparison between the two at the moment.’
During the study period, 21 per cent of the Scottish population had been vaccinated.
The Pfizer vaccine had been received by some 650,000 people, while 490,000 had the Oxford/ AstraZeneca jab.
Researchers looked at GP records on vaccination, hospital admissions, death registrations and laboratory test results.
Dr Jim McMenamin, national Covid-19 incident director at Public Health Scotland, called the data ‘encouraging’.
He said: ‘Across the Scottish population the results show a substantial effect on reducing the risk of admission to hospital from a single dose of vaccine. For anyone offered the vaccine, I encourage them to get vaccinated.’
Dr McMenamin said that in Scotland, cases of the South Africa variant had ‘almost exclusively’ been linked to travel, adding: ‘So it is unlikely that we’re able to see anything about the effect of the vaccine for other variants, but certainly for the UK variant we have seen across the time period of the study that we’re demonstrating a very encouraging vaccine effect.’
Chris Robertson, professor of public health epidemiology at the University of Strathclyde, said: ‘These early national results give a reason to be more optimistic about the control of the epidemic.’
The data has been published as a
‘A reason to be more optimistic’
pre-print. This means that it is early work that has not yet been through peer-review and has not yet been published in a journal.
Welcoming the news as ‘exceptionally encouraging’, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ‘I hope that gives us all that little bit of optimism we need for the future.’
Scotland Office Minister Iain Stewart said: ‘This is really welcome news, giving us all hope of getting our lives back to normal as soon as it is safe to do so.
‘The UK Government is supplying vaccines to Scotland and all parts of the UK.
‘It’s just one way we’re supporting people across the country throughout the pandemic.’
The work was funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research and Health Data Research UK and supported by the Scottish Government.
Dr Josie Murray, Public Health
Scotland lead for the study, said: ‘These data show real promise that the vaccines we have given out can protect us from the severe effects of Covid-19.
‘We must not be complacent though. We all still need to ensure we stop transmission of the virus, and the best way we can all do this is to follow the public health guidance: wash your hands often, keep two metres from others, and if you develop virus symptoms, isolate and take a test.
‘We also all need to protect ourselves, our families and friends by taking the second dose of vaccine when it is offered.’
Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England and co-lead for the National Institute for Health Research, said: ‘This provides encouraging early data on the impact of vaccination on reducing hospitalisations.’