Pfizer vaccine offers ‘bright future’ to fight hidden viruses
A SINGLE dose of the Pfizer vaccine could cut asymptomatic infections by three-quarters and prevent people spreading the virus.
The latest study shows the Pfizer jab can cut ‘hidden’ infections in which people do not realise they are ill by 75 per cent.
Scientists said the results were ‘dramatic’ and showed vaccination offered a ‘much brighter future’.
Researchers in Cambridge tracked almost 9,000 hospital staff tested weekly for Covid between January 18 and 31 – some of whom had already been vaccinated.
Among 3,252 unvaccinated health workers, 26 tested positive for Covid without experiencing symptoms. This worked out at 0.8 per cent, or eight in 1,000 people.
But, among 1,989 people given one shot of the Pfizer vaccine, more than 12 days later only four had tested positive without symptoms.
It meant only 0.2 per cent of vaccinated people, or two in 1,000, were infected without their knowledge, which was a quarter of the rate seen in the unvaccinated group.
Dr Mike Weekes, an infectious disease specialist at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) and the University of Cambridge’s Department of Medicine, who led the study, said protecting people from asymptomatic infection was so important because people who do not realise they have the virus are more likely to spread it.
He said: ‘This is great news – the Pfizer vaccine not only provides protection against becoming ill from SARS-CoV-2 [the coronavirus] but also helps prevent infection, reducing the potential for the virus to be passed on to others.
‘This will be welcome news as we begin to plot a road map out of the lockdown, but we have to remember that the vaccine doesn’t give complete protection for everyone.’
Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said: ‘To see such a reduction in infection rates after a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is very impressive, and shows that vaccination truly does offer a way out of the current restrictions and a much brighter future.’
The results come in the same week as a much-awaited study of more than 23,000 healthcare workers, from Public Health England, found a first dose of the Pfizer jab provided 70 per cent protection against asymp
‘Road map out of the lockdown’
tomatic and symptomatic infections after three weeks.
The new study, which is under review and has not yet been formally published, also looked at hospital workers, who are more at risk of getting the virus.
Dr Nick Jones, first author on the study and an infectious diseases/microbiology registrar at CUH, said: ‘This is fantastic news for both hospital staff and patients, who can be reassured that the current mass vaccination strategy is protecting against asymptomatic carriage of the virus in addition to symptomatic disease, thereby making hospitals even safer places to be.’