Pfizer Shot Just 39% Effective Against Delta Infection, Israel Study Suggests

39% effective against infection, but the big sticking point is that it "Largely prevents severe illness"...ie keeping people out of the hospital. That is the crucial need right now with the delta spread.

This is old news:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27943833" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=27943833</a> (29 days ago)<p>Also, the 39% number is the average for people vaccinated between January and July. For people vaccinated in January, the Pfizer shot is only 16% effective against the delta variant (scroll down to last page):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.il&#x2F;BlobFolder&#x2F;reports&#x2F;vaccine-efficacy-safety-follow-up-committee&#x2F;he&#x2F;files_publications_corona_two-dose-vaccination-data.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gov.il&#x2F;BlobFolder&#x2F;reports&#x2F;vaccine-efficacy-safet...</a><p>Protection against severe illness is still above 85% though and declines only slowly. Besides, people vaccinated in January were mostly elderly.

This was reported a month ago and has been discussed ad nauseum, including issues with the Israeli data and methodology. Why bring it up again now?<p>Edit: BTW, regarding the data and methodology, here&#x27;s a great write-up about why the Israeli top-line numbers can be misleading:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.covid-datascience.com&#x2F;post&#x2F;israeli-data-how-can-efficacy-vs-severe-disease-be-strong-when-60-of-hospitalized-are-vaccinated" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.covid-datascience.com&#x2F;post&#x2F;israeli-data-how-can-...</a>

I am extremely skeptical of this. I think the best summary of why this isn&#x27;t the story is provided by Zvi[1]. See the section &quot;Delta Variant.&quot;<p>It&#x27;s not something I can summarize in a couple short sentences, but the base rate of infections we&#x27;re seeing from the actual data of delta infections doesn&#x27;t match the 39% intuition at all. Additionally, the Israel Study seems to be thrown around a lot, but the data is suspicious if you look at our actual delta infection data from every other source.<p>In short, I think there&#x27;s a lot of panic here that is being done by people who are looking at a single study.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thezvi.wordpress.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;08&#x2F;19&#x2F;covid-8-19-cracking-the-booster&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;thezvi.wordpress.com&#x2F;2021&#x2F;08&#x2F;19&#x2F;covid-8-19-cracking-...</a>

Need to come up with a Nasal Spray version. The mucosal immune system represents the body’s first line of defense and makes up most of the immune system and should be more effective than an intramuscular shot.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medicalxpress.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2021-08-sniffing-alternative-scientists-nasal-mist.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medicalxpress.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;2021-08-sniffing-alternative-...</a><p>Researchers even observed the nasal vaccine to be more effective than if administered into the muscles, Damron said. He explained that a high amount of IgA antibody gets released into the nose and lungs, forging a wall of protection at the site where viruses begin to replicate.

thread from someone working on the study: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mobile.twitter.com&#x2F;dvir_a&#x2F;status&#x2F;1420059124700700677" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mobile.twitter.com&#x2F;dvir_a&#x2F;status&#x2F;1420059124700700677</a>

Does this take into account that folks in Israel received their shots a while ago?

How much of this is from waning immunity due to “expiring” early vaccinations without a booster?

Studies continue to show vaccines are less effective than we were all lead to believe. It seems like every new study that comes out lowers the bar even further. Pretty soon we&#x27;ll be hearing &quot;the vaccine doesn&#x27;t help at all, but at least it didn&#x27;t give you cancer&quot; (mild sarcasm there, but you get the point).<p>Each of the big pharma companies were poised to make a boatload of money by being first to produce a vaccine. I&#x27;m disappointed, but not surprised.