Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine curbs transmission, Israeli analysis suggests

(Image credit: JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

published 21 February 2021

Data from Israel that are awaiting publication suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is not only effective at preventing symptomatic infection, but can also stop transmission of the virus in the first place, The Financial Times and Bloomberg reported Sunday.

The potentially game-changing results were compiled by the health ministry in Israel, the country with the world's highest vaccination rate, in the three weeks leading up to Feb. 6. By the end of that period, more than 27 percent of the over-15 Israeli population had been fully vaccinated, and the preliminary real-world observation analysis found the vaccine was 89 percent effective at preventing infection of any kind.

As is often the case with studies during the coronavirus pandemic, the findings require more scrutiny, but they are in line with those of a similar analysis conducted by the Mayo Clinic. That study looked at 31,000 people across four U.S. states who received at least one dose of either vaccine, determining they were around 80 percent effective at preventing infection 36 days after the initial dose, CNN reports. Read more at The Financial Times and Bloomberg.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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