The preliminary findings were based on a comparison of people who had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and those who hadn’t been inoculated yet. The data were gathered between Dec. 8 and Feb. 15, a period when 21% of Scotland’s population received their first vaccine shot. British regulators authorized widespread use of the AstraZeneca vaccine Dec. 30, almost a month after they gave the green light for use of the Pfizer vaccine. Outside experts said while the findings are encouraging, they should be interpreted with caution because of the nature of this kind of observational study. In particular, relatively few people overall were hospitalized for COVID-19 after receiving the vaccinations during the study period.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 22, 2021 16:26 UTC