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Pfizer shot halts severe illness, allows infections in Israel

Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine provided a strong shield against hospitalisation and more severe disease in cases caused by the contagious delta variant in Israel in recent weeks, even though it was just 39 per cent effective in preventing infections, according to the country’s health ministry. The vaccine, developed with BioNTech SE, provided 88 per cent protection against hospitalisation and 91.4 per cent against severe illness for an unspecified number of people studied between June 20 and July 17. These results contrast with an earlier study in the New England Journal of Medicine