Effectiveness of Pfzier’s COVID-19 mRNA booster may drop in 3 months
- Researchers analyzed more than 11,000 hospital admissions and emergency room visits to see how well COVID-19 vaccines prevent diseases.
- They found that all three doses of the Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are highly effective in initially preventing hospitalizations.
- Although this high level of effectiveness is declining, experts say vaccines still offer key protection against COVID-19.
New to research finds that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine provides robust protection against hospitalization and emergency room visits in the first few months. However, the protection seems to wear off over time, even after a booster dose.
“Booster doses of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 significantly improve protection against Omicron, although this protection appears to weaken after 3 months against ER visits, and even for hospitalization,” lead author, Sara Y. Tartof , PhD, researcher and infectious disease specialist said the epidemiologist from the Department of Research and Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente Southern California in a statement.
The researchers analyzed more than 11,000 hospital admissions and emergency room visits that did not result in hospitalization for an acute respiratory infection.
They focused on Kaiser Permanente patient records in Southern California from December 1, 2021 through February 6, 2022, when the Delta and Omicron variants were circulating. This period was also the peak of the Omicron wave in California.
According to the researchers, after two doses of the vaccine, the vaccine’s effectiveness against Omicron was 41% against hospital admission and 31% against emergency room visits at nine months.
They found that a Pfizer vaccine booster offered around 80-90% protection against the severe Delta and Omicron illnesses immediately after it was given.
But the effectiveness against Omicron-related hospitalization began to decline after about three months.
The vaccine prevented 85% of hospitalization within three months of its administration. But the effectiveness dropped to 55% after three months.
They also looked at the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing Omicron-related emergency room visits that did not result in hospitalization. They found that three doses of the Pfizer vaccine were 77% effective within three months of administration. It fell to 53% after the three-month mark.
“Although the levels of protection of Pfizer COVID-19 against omicron after 3 doses are significantly higher than those observed after 2 doses, they are lower than those observed for delta or other strains of COVID-19”, Tartof said in a statement.
She warned that additional doses of “current, adapted or new COVID-19 vaccines” may be needed to maintain high levels of protection against new waves of infection caused by Omicron or future variants with similar potential to escape. protection.
Experts point out that COVID-19 vaccines are a critical part of ending the pandemic, and even as their effectiveness wanes, they provide critical and important protection against serious disease.
“One of the misunderstandings people have about the COVID vaccine, and there’s a lot of reasons why they’re confused – they think if you get vaccinated you won’t get the virus,” said Peter Pitts , former associate commissioner of the FDA. and president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.
While this is true for many people, he explained, the vaccine does not offer complete protection against infection.
“Especially when we have a highly contagious mutation,” Pitts said. “This [vaccination] alleviate symptoms.
He added that with currently available vaccines, the alleviation of severe symptoms and hospitalizations is “extremely robust, as evidenced by high infection and low hospitalization.”
“The reality is that vaccines as they currently exist are extremely effective in accomplishing their mission of keeping people out of hospital and dying,” Pitts confirmed.
Pitts said the vaccine’s effectiveness is expected to decline over time. This may be partly due to the decrease in antibodies, but this study did not measure antibody levels.
Pitts explained that this research proved a hypothesis that vaccine protection declines over time, and the vaccine provides greater protection against some variants than others.
“But it’s still effective,” he said. “It’s not necessarily less effective.”
He compared it to needing $20 to buy an item when you already have $40.
“And then the price goes up to $25; You still have enough money to pay it,” Pitts said. “So the big question is; what is strong enough?
“This study does not answer that question,” he continued. “Because we don’t necessarily know how to properly create these studies.”
Robert G. Lahita, MD, PhD, director of the Institute of Autoimmune and Rheumatic Diseases at Saint Joseph Health and author of Immunity Street explained that vaccines one over time. He suspects COVID vaccination may be needed every year, like the flu shot.
“It’s not an unexpected problem considering the nature of the virus,” Lahita said.Healthline said.
He pointed out that, although different from COVID-19, some common human coronaviruses are linked to the common cold, which people can get frequently. So he doesn’t find it surprising that vaccine-induced immunity can be short-lived. But he pointed out that the vaccines have been effective enough that hospitalizations are down nationwide.
“I would say that research in the future will show that the vaccine lasts differently in different people”, “It will depend on age, lifestyle, overall health, etc.
He also noted that the vaccine’s effectiveness of 53% at three months or more is similar to the protection a flu vaccine could provide.
New research reveals that the effectiveness of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine was initially potent, but drastically declined after three months at the height of the Omicron wave.
Experts say it’s not unusual for the effectiveness of vaccines to decline over time, and vaccines are significantly protective in preventing serious disease in many people.
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