Pfizer vs AstraZeneca: The Covid vaccine most likely to keep you out of hospital

Australian health authorities are not collecting an important piece of data that would be useful to judge vaccine efficacy, as the jab that’s more likely to keep you out of hospital is revealed.

Exclusive: More than 2700 fully vaccinated Australians have caught Covid and hundreds have ended up in hospital but health authorities are not collecting data on which vaccine they received.

Experts say a data bank on which brand of vaccine they received — especially those who die from the virus — would be useful to judge vaccine efficacy.

It could also help guide decision making about which vaccines to purchase for booster doses.

Both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs have received only provisional approval from the medicines regulator the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

They have been authorised for use for just two years “subject to certain strict conditions, such as the requirement to continue providing information to the TGA on longer term efficacy and safety from ongoing clinical trials and post-market assessment”.

However none of the states battling Covid outbreaks, nor the federal government, appears to be gathering information on a key efficacy metric — the brand of vaccine given to people who end up in hospital.

TGA boss Professor John Skerritt. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

When asked for data on which vaccine immunised people who ended up in hospital received, NSW, ACT and Victorian health departments said it was not available.

The federal Health Department which is in charge of post-market surveillance of medicines said the data was “not held at a federal level.”

“You will need to reach out to the States and Territories for this one,” a spokesperson said.

NSW Health said: “what is contained in the epi (epidemiological week) report regarding a person’s vaccination status is the most detail we can offer.”

This report notes how many fully vaccinated people ended up in hospital but not which brand of vaccine they received.

In NSW, 32 vaccinated people have died from coronavirus.

Of the 32 people who died most were over the age of 70.

The 32 deaths among people fully vaccinated were two people in their 50s, ten people in their 70s, ten people in their 80s and ten people in their 90s.

Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services provided figures on the number of vaccinated people in hospital but was also unable to provide the data by vaccine brand.

“Vaccination offers strong and sustained protection against severe forms of Covid-19. That’s why we continue to call on everyone eligible to come forward and get vaccinated as soon as possible,” the department said.

The ACT also provided data on hospitalisations among the fully vaccinated but when asked to report it by vaccine brand could not do so.

“This is not data that ACT Health is able to provide. However, all vaccines approved for use in Australia are very effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalisation and death from Covid-19,” ACT Health said.

In a recent preprint publication, which has not yet been peer reviewed, it found Pfizer was more protective against hospitalisation than AstraZeneca.. Picture Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Overseas Public Health England is monitoring vaccine effectiveness by brand.

In a recent preprint publication, which has not yet been peer reviewed, it found Pfizer was more protective against hospitalisation than AstraZeneca.

Pfizer’s protection against hospitalisation remained close to 92.7 per cent against the Delta strain four and a half months after the second shot was given.

AstraZeneca’s protections was lower against hospitalisation, at 77 per cent against Delta four and a half months after the second jab the study found.

Pfizer was also more protective against death 90.4 per cent compared to 78.7 per cent for AstraZeneca.

A spokesperson for Pfizer also failed to supply any data on the number of Australians who received their vaccine but ended up in hospital with Covid or who died from the virus even though they were vaccinated.

“Pfizer complies with the pharmacovigilance reporting responsibilities as required by the TGA”.

“This includes the submission of any reports of potential serious adverse reactions or significant safety signals or information potentially affecting the benefit-risk profile of the product, and maintaining records pertaining to the safety of the medicine, including product labels and answering requests from TGA,” the spokesperson said.

“To 3 October 2021, more than 16.6 million doses of Comirnaty have been administered in Australia. With hundreds of millions of doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine administered globally, the benefit risk profile of our vaccine remains positive,” the company said.

“The reports of suspected side effects TGA has received for this vaccine are consistent with what has been observed in clinical trials and by other medicines regulators overseas. The TGA’s evaluation notes that most side effects resolve within a few days,” the company said..

Associate Professor Paul Griffin who has conducted clinical trials on multiple Covid vaccines said “tracking the efficacy, from what we’re seeing in the population would be useful to do”.

“We do want to know what’s happening with the vaccines in our hands so we can make sure that they continue perform as expected and that we detect any changes if I were to arise,” he said.

Australian National University infectious diseases expert Professor Peter Collignon said while no jab was 100 per cent effective, vaccines dramatically reduced virus transmission, hospitalisation and death.

“They effectively lower your age by 30 years, if you get vaccinated, an 80 year old who had maybe a risk of one in 10 of dying, their risk goes down to being 50 years old, which is not a zero risk … but your chance of dying of Covid is probably about one in 10,000,” he said.

Originally published as Pfizer vs AstraZeneca: The Covid vaccine most likely to keep you out of hospital