Covid-19 vaccine may be less effective on over 50s, say experts researching its efficacy

It's been discovered by a research team in Israel, that the COVID-19 vaccine may be less effective on those who are aged over 50. 

A monitoring team at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem discovered that there are a startling amount of people who are double vaccinated that are being admitted to hospital with COVID-19. 

The team confirmed that 90% of the new confirmed cases in the over-fifties group were people who had received both vaccinations and were fully vaccinated. 

The team confirmed that the data suggests the vaccine is less effective on the 50+ age group. The team commented, “It seems there’s a reduced efficiency of the vaccine, at least for part of the population.”

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Israel has been using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as opposed to other countries that have favored the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine or the Moderna vaccine.

A member of the research team, Professor Doron Gazit, told a radio interviewer, “The situation isn’t that bad, but it’s getting more difficult. The pandemic is spreading but the situation in the hospitals is not so severe.”

Israel is currently experiencing an influx of COVID-19 patients due to the Delta variant that has infected parts of the country. 

On Friday there were 1,118 new cases of COVID-19 in the country. This was a larger number than the day before when only 850 new cases of the virus were recorded.

Due to the influx, there's been a need for special measures to be taken in the country. Professor Dror Mevorach, Head of Internal Medicine at Jerusalem's main hospital, announced, “We’re opening a special coronavirus ward,” he confirmed. “We have no choice.”

Less than a week ago, Israeli doctors discussed the idea that perhaps Israel had lifted their restrictions too quickly. 

Director of the department for international relations at Israel’s ministry of health, Dr Asher Salmon, told BBC’s Today program, “It’s maybe sometimes better to postpone a major restriction lift rather than swing back and forth from closure to opening."

He revealed, “We felt that we are dealing with rising numbers of new cases, most of them of the Delta variant and that we may have lifted some of the restrictions much too early.”

In the UK, today marked 'Freedom Day' as restrictions were almost all completely lifted on all businesses and social activities. It remains to be seen if the over 50s who have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine in the UK will demonstrate the same results as their counterparts in Israel.