COVID-19 Vaccine Reduces Risk of Spread

New research in Israel shows that people who become infected with COVID-19 after just one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine present a much lower risk of passing the virus on to others.

That is because the vaccine seems to reduce the viral load significantly when infection occurs between 12 and 28 days after receiving the first dose.

These results are presented in a paper that has not yet been peer reviewed, written by scientists from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and Maccabi Research Institute.

Their conclusions are based on data from Maccabi Healthcare Services, which is the second largest of Israel’s four national healthcare organisations.

These results follow those from another study in Israel that showed people over 60 who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are less likely to transmit the coronavirus to others due to a substantial reduction in the viral load.

The research team that reviewed the data from Maccabi Healthcare Services believe that the vaccine could be important in ‘affecting viral shedding and contagiousness as well as severity of the disease.’

‘Our results show that infections occurring 12 days or longer
following vaccination have significantly reduced viral loads.’

12 days or longer after vaccination is considered to be a time of only partial protection, as the second shot is given at 21 days and takes effect a week later.