A single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine gives people 85% protection from Covid-19, according to a study from Israel, The Guardian reports.
Pfizer has consistently said that two doses of the vaccine are needed for high efficacy. In clinical trials, it reported efficacy of 52.4% after one dose, but 95% after two doses.
The UK government in December nonetheless decided on a policy of giving as many people as possible a first vaccine shot by increasing the gap between doses of the Pfizer and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The second dose is now given up to 12 weeks after the first.
Pfizer/BioNTech has not supported the approach, arguing that the vaccine has not been through trials to show what efficacy looked like after three months with one dose.
A team of researchers in Israel, which is ahead of every other country in its immunisation programme and is using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, has found that efficacy is high just before people have their second dose.
In the Lancet medical journal, staff at the Sheba Medical Centre, the country’s largest hospital, published their analysis of data from the vaccination of more than 9,000 healthcare workers.
