According to this study carried out in Israel, patients over 60 who had received two doses against COVID-19 at least 5 months ago will benefit from an additional dose in terms of a significant reduction of severe disease. In addition, patients who unfortunately got severely ill despite receiving a third shot, were more easily managed.
As of July 30, 2021, Israel authorized a third dose (a booster shot) of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech) for people over 60 who had completed the vaccination scheme at least 5 months earlier.
The study looked at data was from July 30 through August 31, 2021, from 1,137,804 persons who had the second dose against coronavirus 5 months earlier.
A primary analysis compared the rate of confirmed COVID19 and the rate of severe illness between those who had received a booster injection at least 12 days earlier (booster group) and those who had not received a booster shot (non-booster group).
At least 12 days after the booster dose, the rate of confirmed infection was lower in the booster group by a factor of 11.3 (CI 10.4 to 12.3) and severe illness rate was lower by a factor of 19.5 (CI 12.9 to 29.5).
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A secondary analysis showed those in the booster group were protected 4 to 6 days after the third shot.
Conclusion
While most countries in the world are still dealing with the first vaccination campaign, others more advanced have already been able to gather evidence in support of what most likely will lead the struggle against COVID-19: a booster shot.
Original Title: Protection of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19 in Israel
Reference: N Engl J Med. 2021 Sep 15. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2114255. Online ahead of print.
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