Laura Laplaud 2:27 p.m., October 11, 2021

A French study, the largest carried out in the world, proves that the vaccine against Covid-19 reduces by 90% the risk of severe forms, hospitalization and death of the disease in people over 50 years old and that even five months after receiving a second dose of Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccine.

Vaccinated people would be nine times less likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid-19, according to a French study published on Monday.

The study led by the Epi-Phare structure, which brings together the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) and the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), involved 22 million people.

"We took the vaccinated people and compared them to the unvaccinated people," explains Mahmoud Zureik, epidemiologist and director of Epi-Phare.

"11 million vaccinated and 11 million unvaccinated, we followed them to find out whether they are hospitalized for Covid or not, died for Covid or not."

Two age groups analyzed

The authors of the study analyzed the three main vaccines that are or have been used in France, such as the vaccine from the laboratory Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

By comparing the rates of hospitalization in vaccinated people over the age of 50 and in unvaccinated people of the same age group, researchers can say that the vaccination is effective.

"It has been proven that vaccination is more than 90% effective, even 92 to 96% to prevent these serious forms, hospitalization and death," says Mahmoud Zureik.

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The study is based on two age groups of the French population: 50-74 years, and 75 years and over.

“If you remember, the vaccine strategy for people under 50 started at the end of May, and we don't have all the data we need to study,” he reports.

The study thus shows that the effectiveness of vaccination on severe forms of the disease in people aged 50 and over "did not seem to decrease over the available follow-up period which went up to five months".

These results confirm other observations made in other countries such as Israel, Great Britain or the United States, but the French study is the largest carried out in the world, over a period from December 27, 2020 to December 20, 2020. July 2021.