The First Cut is the Deepest?

Scientists (from the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde, together with Public Health Scotland) have demonstrated that a first dose, of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, profoundly reduces hospital admissions with Covid-19 infections (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/22/scotland-covid-vaccination-drive-linked-to-big-drop-in-hospital-admissions). The scientists compared people who had had received a vaccine, with counterparts who had not. Four weeks after their first injection, the vaccinated groups, showed reduced risks of hospital admission of, respectively, up to 85 and 94%, for the two vaccines. In the over-80s (an especially vulnerable group who were targeted for the first vaccinations), there was an 80%+ reduction in hospital admissions in patients receiving either vaccine. It appears that the targeted vaccination programmes should, within weeks, reduce pressures on hospitals. In this study, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was mainly used in the older age groups. This vaccine appeared to have a particularly good protective effect on the elderly. This should raise a question for EU countries, who are currently only recommending it for the under 65s.