Israel’s Health Ministry has said Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is only 39 percent effective as the Delta variant has become the leading cause of new infections in the country.
"We have to be mindful that, with time, the effectiveness of these vaccines may wane” CNBC quoted University of Toronto professor Dr. Isaac Bogoch.
“We have to be prepared and we have to be nimble that people may need a booster at some point…This close surveillance that’s happening in countries like Israel, the U.K. and other parts of the world is going to be very helpful in driving policy if and when we do need boosters”, he added.
Although, vaccines are still effective in preventing the severe conditions of Covid-19 infection.
Urging more and more people to get vaccinated, Dr. Paul Offit said to CNBC, “That is a rich and fertile ground for the virus to continue to reproduce itself and continue to create variants that possibly become more and more resistant to vaccines or natural infection.”
Dr. VK Paul, talking about the effectiveness of Covishied and Covaxin, two vaccines used in India for mass vaccination, had said last week, “If we examine the findings, we see that one dose gave 82 per cent protection from death while two doses gave 95 per cent protection from Covid-19 death. This study was done on a high-risk population at a time when the pandemic was at its peak. And we all know that Delta was driving the peak of the second wave.”
