Not one but two doses provide a useful shield to protect against the Delta variant. The anti Covid vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca Plc have been found to be highly effective after the double injection in preventing the hospitalization of people infected with the mutation which, after the UK, alarms half the world for its speed of transmission. In the vaccinated, infections occur in almost all cases in a non-serious form. Hence the urgency underlined by the researchers to complete the cycles according to the indications provided.
Protection after fourteen days
Pfizer / BioNTech injection is 96% effective against hospitalization after two doses, while AstraZeneca / University of Oxford Covid inoculation is 92% effective, according to an analysis announced Monday by Public Health England. The results are comparable to the protection offered against the Alpha variant first identified in Kent. However, the timing of the achievement of the expected goal is decisive. “All vaccines reach maximum protection fourteen days after inoculation and this applies to both the first and second dose”, explains Massimo Ciccozzi, head of the Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit of the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome . “We know that the antibody duration is six months from the clinical data of the trials done but it could also be up to nine, we will fully understand it only by going ahead with vaccinations in terms of real life”.
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Two effective doses to reduce the risks
Leaving aside a (small) slice of non-responders, at the overall level the incoming evidence is very encouraging also in comparison with the strength demonstrated by the Delta variant. According to the results presented in a research letter published in The Lancet, the risk of hospitalization in contagion with the Delta variant, the “former Indian”, is almost double that of the English one (Alpha). At the same time, Public Health England’s analysis explains that although the Delta variant reduces the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic infection, two doses of the vaccine still protect against severe disease. Some data from May showed that the efficacy of both vaccines against symptomatic Delta variant disease was only 33% three weeks after the first dose.
Phe’s results follow a Scottish study that showed that two doses of a Covid vaccine among people who tested positive reduced the risk of hospitalization by 70%, despite not enough hospital admissions reported to compare vaccines. . Further work is also being carried out to establish the level of protection against mortality of the Delta variant, the forecast is that it will prove to be high in any case.
In Italy Delta variant under 1%
According to the surveys at the moment in Italy the circulation of the Delta variant is very limited. In the latest report by the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) its diffusion is estimated below 1%, as is the so-called “Nigerian”, although a recent increase in the frequency of reports on the national territory is highlighted. The latest cases have been reported in Lombardy and Sardinia. There are 81 cases of the Delta variant detected so far in Lombardy, two in April, 70 in May and 9 to 14 June. There is therefore a downward trend in this month of June. In Sardinia, on the other hand, 12 cases have been reported. Also in South Tyrol a person has been infected with the Delta variant of the virus and is currently in intensive care.