A certain protection from Covid-19, we know, is already guaranteed after the first administration. But how much, to be precise? This English study tries to give an answer.
Vaccination against Covid-19 continues throughout Italy, despite the various difficulties related to the procurement, distribution and safety checks of the various types of vaccines. And so the number of those people who have received at least their first dose rises, and who therefore – as the experts explained to us during these – can already count on a certain degree of protection. But how much, specifically, are you protected from the risk of contracting Covid with a single dose of vaccine? And how can all this impact the safety of one’s family?
The English study
A single dose of the coronavirus vaccine can reduce transmission within a family by up to half, a study by Public Health England (Phe), a health institute linked to the UK Department of Health, found. It is worth remembering that the vaccination campaign in England is very advanced , with a large portion of the population having already completed the cycle.
Well, people infected with the coronavirus three weeks after receiving a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine were between 38% and 49% less likely to pass the virus to their family contacts than those who did not. had been vaccinated, the Phe study found. As for the vaccinated, protection was observed for approximately 14 days after administration, with similar levels regardless of age or contacts. After a single dose – of both vaccines – the risk for a vaccinated person of developing a symptomatic infection is reduced by between 60 and 65%; the protection then becomes even higher following the recall with the second dose, which in Great Britain also occurs 3 months after the first. Several studies have already shown that being vaccinated significantly reduces the risk of being infected (and therefore the consequent risk of being contagious for others); the new study – reads the statement from Public Health England – shows that in the case of vaccinated people, three weeks after the first dose, the probability of infecting family members is also lower (between 38 and 49%).
The effects on the pandemic
Johnson’s government health minister, Matt Hancock, hailed the study’s findings as “fantastic news.” “We already know that vaccines save lives, and this study is the most comprehensive compendium of data in the real world to show that they break the transmission of this virus as well. Which further reinforces the fact that vaccines are the best way out of this pandemic as they protect you and can prevent you from unknowingly infecting someone in your family, ”Hancock said urging everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
The empirical data confirm the coincidence between the widening of the vaccine basin and the collapse of cases of contagion since the immunization campaign began in December, which in Great Britain has already reached 34 million people and 13 million people with the first dose. the second. The Phe study, still in the pre-publication phase, involved more than 57,000 people from 24,000 households, noting that families are high-risk environments for transmission and provide early evidence on the impact of vaccines in preventing transmission.
Similar results could be expected in other settings with similar transmission risks such as shared housing or prisons, Phe notes. According to Dr. Mary Ramsay, head of Phe immunization, vaccines are the viaticum to return to normal life, as well as confirm the new guidelines of the CDC, the US health agency, which have given the green light vaccinated to return to outdoor activities without a mask also with others. «Vaccines are essential – said Dr. Ramsay – to help us return to a normal lifestyle. Not only do vaccines reduce the severity of the disease and prevent hundreds of deaths every day, but now we see that they also have an additional impact in reducing the possibility of transmitting Covid-19 to others ». Some studies on empirical data collected by the CDCs in the US seem to indicate that after vaccination it is difficult to become contagious and even this English research would seem to corroborate them.
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