Vaccination is very effective in preventing severe cases of coronavirus by up to 90%, even against the Delta variant, according to a recent French study.
The research published Monday, carried out in France by Epi-Phare, a structure associating the Health Insurance (Cnam) and the Medicines Agency (ANSM), and focused on the prevention of severe Covid and death, and not the infection, involved 22 million people over the age of 50 and found that those who received vaccine injections were 90% less likely to be hospitalized or die.
The study compared the data of 11 million vaccinated people over 50 years of age with that of 11 million unvaccinated people in the same age group, over a period from the start of vaccination in France on December 27, 2020 to July 20.
The results confirm observations from the US, UK and Israel, but researchers say this is the largest study of its kind to date.
Starting 14 days after a second dose, a vaccine’s risk of severe forms was reduced by 90%, according to research by Epi-Phare. Vaccination appears to be almost as effective against the delta variant, with a 84% protection for people aged 75 and over and 92% for people aged 50 to 75.
However, this estimate is only based on one month of data, since the variant only became dominant in France in June. “The study should be followed to include results from August and September”epidemiologist Mahmoud Zureik, director of Epi-Phare, told AFP.
The study focuses on vaccination with Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna and AstraZeneca but not Johnson & Johnson, which was authorized much later and is much less common in France.
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