Latest data from the UK: vaccines also effective against the English variant
Latest data from the UK
Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines reduced hospitalizations by 85% and 94% respectively from data on 5.4 million Scots. And now the aim is to speed up the vaccination campaign
(Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images) The vaccination campaign has been underway for some time, in Italy since December 27, 2020 and in the United Kingdom since December 8. And the data from the surveys and monitoring conducted on the vaccinated begin to be numerous and to accumulate. The first official report from Public Health England, together with another study (in preprint, forthcoming in the Lancet), and a Scottish health research (also published here in preprint) confirmed a high capacity for both the Pfizer vaccine. -BioNTech (on which there are various news) and for that of Oxford-AstraZeneca, among those most in use in Europe, in reducing hospitalizations and severe cases of Covid-19 (but also mild ones). The results were seen on 5.4 million vaccinated Scots. And to be effective, as the experts of Public Health England explain, also against the so-called English variant, circulating in the United Kingdom and beyond - also in Italy. The United Kingdom data It has often been wondered how high the effectiveness of vaccines would have been in the real world, outside of the trials that still have a greater number of constraints (absence of certain pathologies). The first data are very positive for all vaccines in use. In particular, the Public Health Scotland survey cited, previewed on the Scottish health page, indicates that hospitalizations for Covid-19 were reduced by 85% for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and by 94% for the Oxford vaccine. AstraZeneca, very favorable numbers in both cases. Overall, considering both vaccines, hospitalizations in people over 80 dropped on average by 81%.
In short, even the AstraZeneca vaccine, often accused of being slightly less effective than Pfizer-BioNTech's, would have had a revenge, showing that it has a strong impact in reducing severe cases. English studies have also shown an important element, which has long been discussed, namely the ability of vaccines (both) to protect against the new variant discovered in the UK. The variant is widespread in various other countries, including Italy, one of the reasons why some scientists in our country are calling for a lockdown.
And that's not all. From the first data of the Public Health England report it emerges that, in a sample of about 19 thousand vaccinated healthcare workers, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced the overall cases of infection (even asymptomatic) by 70% and the percentage would rise to 85% afterwards the second dose. The data are however preliminary and to be confirmed.
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UK data points to record outflow of foreign workers in 2020
© Reuters/Henry Nicholls FILE PHOTO: A worker stands in an empty restaurant, as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, in London
By David Milliken
LONDON (Reuters) - Almost a million people born outside Britain may have left the country last year as the coronavirus pandemic appears to have triggered the biggest net outflow of foreign-born workers on record, according to official data released on Tuesday.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics suggested there were 795,000 fewer foreign-born workers in Britain in the final three months of 2020 than a year earlier, and nearly a million fewer foreign-born residents aged over 16.
Britain has suffered Europe's highest death toll from coronavirus and the biggest economic hit of any major economy. Some sectors which previously employed large numbers of foreign workers, such as hospitality, have been especially hard hit.
© Reuters/Henry Nicholls FILE PHOTO: A restaurant worker sits in the window of an empty restuarant, as the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases grow around the world, in LondonTuesday's figures come from an official survey of Britain's labour market - not the main immigration data, which has been suspended due to the pandemic - and the ONS said the figures should be 'used with caution' for a range of reasons.
The method by which responses to the survey are scaled up into total numbers of people assumes that Britain's overall population still grew at its pre-pandemic rate - potentially giving a misleading starting point for the estimates.
The survey is also not designed to capture migration flows, and the pandemic means telephone calls have replaced the ONS's door-to-door interviews, making it harder to tell if reduced numbers of foreign-born respondents reflect a change in the sample or an underlying change.
Nonetheless Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King's College London and a former chief economist at Britain's Department for Work and Pensions, said it was reasonable to conclude that mass migration had taken place.
'I have no doubt that we have seen an outflow of people that is unprecedented in recent history,' he said.
It was hard to know if workers would return once the pandemic was over, Portes said.
In cases where European Union nationals had not previously completed paperwork to ensure British residency rights after Brexit, they could face legal difficulties.
Workers born in the EU accounted for the majority of departures in the past year in the ONS figures.
The way in which the ONS calculates the data meant that it could still be underestimating the outflow, Portes said. Other signals from the data, such as an apparent return of more than 1 million Britons from abroad, looked implausible, he added.
The ONS said it could not give guidance on the likely direction of any revisions to the data.
(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Alex Richardson)
