And what if one dose of Covid vaccine was enough to fight against the epidemic for the time being? According to a wide study published in preprint on the Social Science Research Network and carried out by searchers from the Edinburg and Glasgow universities, as well as the Public Health Scotland, Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are effective from the first shot against severe infections. called EAVE II, the study enabled to follow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic on the entire population, and vaccination results in 1.14 million people, namely 21% of the 5.4 million people in Scotland.
What do results show? They are the same as those from the clinical trials of the vaccines, namely that both products dramatically decrease risks of severe infection, often leading to hospitalization. Scientists have noticed that after assessing weekly vaccination, admission, and hospitalization data, between December 8 and February 16 – that is to say from the very beginning of the vaccination campaigns in Europe – and four weeks after the first shot of vaccine, severe Covid infections dropped by 85% in people given the Pfizer dose, and by 94% in those given the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In detail, when it comes to at-risk people, their hospitalization drops by circa 81%, whatever vaccine is used. Especially promising results – as head of the Usher Institute, Edinburgh university, Aziz Sheikh explains: “These results are very encouraging and have given us great reasons to be optimistic for the future. We now have national evidence...that vaccination provides protection against COVID-19 hospitalizations”, he says enthusiastically.
But it does not yet mean countries massively vaccinating shall not remain cautious. Why? Mutations developing and spreading very quick, they shall not prevent people from sticking to health guidelines instated in countries, or Covid infections might boom.
