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Paris (AFP)
Vaccination against covid-19 reduces the risk of hospitalization and death among people over 50 by 90% and appears equally effective against the delta variant, according to a French study published Monday.
“It means that vaccinated people have nine times less risk of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19 than non-vaccinated people,” epidemiologist Mahmoud Zureik, director of the Epi-Phare agency, in charge of the study, told AFP.
To reach that conclusion, Epi-Phare researchers compared data from 11 million vaccinated people over 50 years of age with 11 million unvaccinated people of the same age, between December 27, 2020 (beginning vaccination in France) and the following July 20.
At 14 days after receiving the second dose, the researchers observed “a reduction in the risk of hospitalization greater than 90%.”
That figure is valid for the Pfizer / BioNtech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca vaccines. Janssen’s vaccine, the fourth licensed in France, was not included in the study.
For severe forms of the disease, the level of efficacy “does not appear to decrease in the available follow-up period, up to five months,” according to Epi-Phare.
To measure the impact of the currently dominant delta variant, the researchers specifically calculated the reduction in the risk of hospitalization during the period in which it had the most spread in France, starting on June 20, one month before the end of the study. .
They found comparable results with previous periods: an efficacy of 84% among those aged 75 and over, and 92% among people aged 50 to 72 years.
However, they pointed out that “the period was too short to evaluate the real impact of vaccination on this variant”, which is why they will continue the study.
The French data confirm other studies conducted in other countries.
© 2021 AFP
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