Pfizer Vaccine Counters Delta But Rates Vary

Carl Zimmer writing in New York Times July 6, 2021 had good news for us when we visited the page. He cited numerous studies confirming Pfizer vaccine counters Delta. However, the rates reported varied, and we knew it was important to know why. Space here allows only a brief summary. However, are appending a link to the source article in case you would like to investigate further.

We Only Have Small Pieces of the Puzzle Right Now

Delta has not been around long enough to attempt an overall conclusion of Pfizer’s effectiveness against the variant. However, we do know:

1… Two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had an effectiveness of 88% protecting against symptomatic disease from Delta in Scotland in May.

2… Canadian researchers claimed Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 87% effective in Ontario, based on laboratory tests and administrative databases.

3… But the Israeli government said Pfizer was only 64% effective against all COVID infections. However, it prevented 93% of serious illness and hospitalization cases.

Pfizer Vaccine Counters Delta But Why the Variations

‘We just have to take everything together as little pieces of a puzzle,’ a biostatistician at Emory University told Carl Zimmer. ‘And not put too much weight on any one number’ because it’s harder to be accurate in a real world. We are not in control of who gets the vaccine. But we do know unvaccinated people are more likely to become sick.

The Israeli study did not go into sufficient detail to isolate the influence of depth of vaccination in particular populations., according to a local expert. Moreover, Israeli health officials do selective testing in outbreak hot spots, and this could bring the effectiveness rate down.

Furthermore, the extent to which the population maintains safe practices should also influence the infection rate. And therefore have a bearing on the overall assessment of Pfizer’s vaccines ability to counter Delta. We did not see anything in Carl Zimmer’s article challenging the logic of vaccination.