To assess the effectiveness of vaccines against the coronavirus, a large French study was launched by ÉPI-PHARE, a scientific work program. She analyzed the data of 22 million people. What are the conclusions?
Anti-covid vaccines 90% effective
Since the start of vaccination in France, which started on December 27, 2020, two real-life studies have taken place to assess the effectiveness of vaccines against Covid-19. The Epi-Phare program was created by the National Health Security Agency (ANSM) and the Health Insurance. As part of the reinforced surveillance project for anti-Covid vaccines, researchers analyzed data from the SNDS (National Health Data System) of more than 22 million people. In detail, one of the studies involved 15.4 million people aged between 50 and 74 and the other included data from 7.2 million people aged 75 and over. The scientists compared the information of 11.3 million vaccinated individuals with that of 11.3 million unvaccinated individuals and stopped their work on July 20, 2021.
For people aged 50 to 74:
- 53.6% had received Pfizer serum;
- 7.1% the Moderna product;
- 39.2% the AstraZeneca vaccine.
As for people aged 75 and over:
- 85.3% had received Pfizer;
- 8.7% Moderna vaccine;
- 6.1% AstraZeneca serum.
According to the director of EPI-PHARE, Prof. Mahmoud Zureik, “ The results […] highlight the important efficacy of the three vaccines […] against severe forms of Covid-19 […] with a reduction in the risk of hospitalization from the 14th day after the injection of the second dose greater than 90% in the two cohorts and for each vaccine. ”
In other words, people who have received any of these three vaccines are 9 times less likely to have a severe form of the disease, to be hospitalized or to die. Efficacy does not appear to decrease during the follow-up period, which may have been up to 5 months. Indeed, “ in the 75 and older cohort, it was 94% at 5 months follow-up for the Pfizer vaccine. It was 97% in the 50 to 74 cohort at 4 months of follow-up », Underlines the press release.
What protection against the delta variant?
Professor Mahmoud Zureik’s team also wanted to know if the decrease in the risk of hospitalization concerned the delta variant. She therefore analyzed the data since the emergence of this strain in France, from June 20 to July 20. According to experts, “ efficacy was 84% in the cohort aged 75 and over and 92% in the cohort aged 50 to 74. However, studies are continuing, in particular for vaccine efficacy against the delta variant, in order to measure how it evolves over a longer period.
