[ 2021-02-22 ]

Vaccines cut Covid hospital admissions by up to 94%
Edinburgh University research ‘very
encouraging’

London (UK) – 22 February 2021 – The Times -
The UK’s coronavirus vaccine programme may cut
hospital admissions by up to 94 per cent,
according to “very encouraging” data from
Scotland released this morning.

A study found that by the fourth week after
receiving the initial dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech
and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines reduced the
chances of being admitted to hospital with
Covid-19 by up to 85 per cent and 94 per cent
respectively.

Among over-80s, vaccination was linked to an 81
per cent reduction in hospitalisation risk four
weeks later.

While the numbers in the study were not high
enough to compare the two vaccines in that age
group, the majority of jabs given in that cohort
were the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

Professor Aziz Sheikh, the lead researchers and
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.

“Roll-out of the first vaccine dose now needs to
be accelerated globally to help overcome this
terrible disease.”

The results offer the first real-world data on
vaccine efficacy in the UK, and the researchers
said they would expect similar figures from
England’s programme.

The figures offer further reassurance of the
approach taken by UK health authorities to
prioritise giving first vaccine doses to as many
people as possible over vaccinating people
according to the manufacturers’ schedule.

The study looked at numbers of people being
admitted to hospital with the coronavirus after
vaccination, and compared that with people who had
not been vaccinated.

While more than 8,000 people ended up in hospital,
only eight had been vaccinated four weeks
previously.

They gathered data between December 8 and February
15, over which time 1.14 million vaccines were
administered in Scotland and 21 per cent of the
Scottish population received a first dose.

Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for
England and co-lead for the National Institute for
Health Research, said: “This research provides
encouraging early data on the impact of
vaccination on reducing hospitalisations.”

The trial did not look at the potential impact of
the virus on transmission levels, and Dr Josie
Murray of Public Health Scotland, one of the study
leaders, said that the results should not make
people complacent.

She said: “We all still need to ensure we stop
transmission of the virus, and the best way we can
all do this is to follow public health guidance
— wash your hands often, keep 2 metres from
others, and if you develop 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.”

Source - The Times, UK

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