Collapse of deaths and infections, what the ISS study says on the effectiveness of vaccines

the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, hospitalization and death progressively decreases after the first two weeks and up to approximately 35 days after the administration of the first dose. After 35 days there is a stabilization of the reduction which is about 80% for the risk of diagnosis, 90% for the risk of hospitalization and 95% for the risk of death. The data coming from the first National Report of the Higher Institute of Health (iss) and the Ministry of Health on the efficacy of vaccines are reason for enthusiasm, based on the joint analysis of the national vaccine registry and integrated Covid-19 surveillance . The observed effects, in the “real world“, are similar in both men and women and in people of different age groups. So with exceptions in all immunized.

Brusaferro: reach high roofs soon

The analysis was carried out from the start day of the vaccination campaign to May 3, 2021, relating to 13.7 million immunized people. Almost all (95%) of people vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna completed the course by receiving the two doses, while for the AstraZeneca vaccine none of the people included in the study had received the full course. “These numbers confirm the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign and the need to quickly reach high coverage in the entire population to get out of the emergency thanks to this fundamental tool,” commented ISS president Silvio Brusaferro.

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Over 2 million over 70s still unvaccinated

According to the latest surveys, over two million Italians over 70 who have not yet received the first dose of the vaccine. According to the numbers updated by the Government as of May 14, 519,666 over 80 (11.49% of the population of this age group) and 1,495,947 citizens between 70 and 79 years old (24.84%) are not been vaccinated. Among the over 80s, the region furthest behind is Sicily, with 30.99% who have not even had the first dose while in Veneto the percentage drops to 1.56%. Among the 70-79 year olds, the region that has vaccinated the least is Sicily, with 42.57% and the one that has gone better is Puglia, where 15.70% of unvaccinated remain.

After reopening no warning signal

For Massimo Ciccozzi, epidemiologist at the Campus Biomedico University of Rome, the front on which to act quickly to reduce deaths is to proceed by vaccinating the over 70 group. In general, the very positive numbers provided by the ISS on the efficacy of vaccines “if they add others equally reassuring: in the week 5-11 May, compared to the previous one, there was a decrease in deaths of 15.4%, a minus 15.1% of employment in intensive care, a reduction of 17.8 % of hospitalizations and -19% of new cases of contagion. This means that the curve is going down on all fronts ». As explained by the coordinator of the CTS Franco Locatelli, the analysis of the data indicates that the openings decided according to the criterion of “reasoned risk” were not associated with a resumption of infections.

The paraphernalia of available preparations

The vaccination campaign against COVID-19 was launched in Italy on December 27, 2020. To date, there are four vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency (Ema) and Aifa, they are Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNtech), COVID- 19 Vaccine Moderna (Moderna), Vaxzevria AstraZeneca) and COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen (Johnson & Johnson). All of these vaccines, except Covid-19 Vaccine Janssen, require a vaccination course of two doses at different time intervals (at the time of analysis: 21 days for Comirnaty, 28 days for Covid-19 Vaccine Moderna and 10-12 weeks for Vaxzevria ).