Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine has been less effective in South Africa at keeping people infected with the virus out of hospital since the Omicron variant emerged last month, a real-world study published on Tuesday showed. Between Nov. 15 and Dec. 7, people who had received two doses of the shot had a 70% chance of avoiding hospitalization, down from 93% during the previous wave of Delta infections, the study showed. When it came to avoiding infection altogether, the study by South Africa’s largest private health insurance administrator, Discovery Health, showed that protection against catching COVID-19 had slumped to 33% from 80% previously. The findings from the real-world analysis are some of the first about the […]