- Two doses of Pfizer vaccine give 70% protection against hospitalisation
- Two doses of Pfizer vaccine provides 33% protection against infection
- Study suggests risk of reinfection during current wave is significantly higher than before
I think the details of the study are the more important thing here.
The study is released by South Africa's largest private health insurance administrator, Discovery Health. Of note, it is based on more than 211,000 positive COVID-19 cases - of which around 78,000 believed to be attributed to the omicron variant. The study was conducted from 15 November to 7 December.
As such, that makes it tough to get an accurate sense on vaccine efficacy against omicron. But at least it does provide some idea on how medical capacity can cope in the early stages of the omicron spread.
Besides that, I don't think one can say with much certainty that two vaccine doses is enough to combat omicron. I mean if omicron is to surpass delta as the dominant variant, the vaccine efficacy rates may flip. That said, we'll be hearing soon from vaccine makers on their detailed findings so let's see what they have to say in the days/weeks ahead.
