Boris Johnson outlines 'importance' of coronavirus booster jabs
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The landmark study was carried out by the Clalit Research Institute in Ramat Gan, Israel, in collaboration with Harvard University in the US. The study’s authors analysed a global database of more than 1.4 million health records to assess the efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech booster shot. As the world emerges from the chaos and confusion of the Covid pandemic, there has been a surge in infections attributed to the more contagious Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
According to data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO), Israel has seen more 1.3 million Covid infections since the pandemic began in late 2019.
As of October 17, nearly 12 million doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered across the country, including the rollout of a booster shot programme.
Israel has recorded more than 8,000 deaths attributed to the virus.
In the occupied Palestinian territories, there have been more than 450,000 Covid infections, 4,663 deaths and more than 2.7 million vaccines administered.
The new study, which was published in the journal The Lancet, suggests booster shots are “highly effective” against severe cases of COVID-19.
The results indicate that people who have received the third jab, have a 93 percent lower risk of Covid-related hospitalization, 92 percent lower risk of severe COVID-19, and an 81 percent lower risk of Covid-related death.
The results are in stark comparison to people who have only received their first and second shots five months before the study.
The vaccines were found to be similarly effective across the sexes and different age groups.
Dr Hilary says getting COVID-19 booster jabs is 'easier'
Professor Ran Balicer, the study’s senior author and Director of the Clalit Research Institute, said: “These results show convincingly that the third dose of the vaccine is highly effective against severe COVID-19-related outcomes in different age groups and population subgroups, one week after the third dose.
“These data should facilitate informed policy decision-making.”
In total, the researchers analysed data from 728,321 people aged 12 and above who have received a booster shot of the Pfizer hab.
Their data was matched against 728,321 people who have only had two shots of the vaccine.
The study was carried out between July 30 and September 23 this year and involved more than 12 million person-days of follow up.
The people involved were matched based on demographic factors, geography and health-related attributes.
These included the risk of infection, risk of severe disease and health status.
A population-level analysis also found infection rates began to drop for each age group some seven to 10 days after they became eligible for the booster shot.
According to Professor Ben Reis, Director of the Predictive Medicine Group at the Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program, a lack of information regarding the efficacy of vaccines has been one of the leading causes of vaccine hesitancy.
He said: “This careful epidemiological study provides reliable information on third-dose vaccine effectiveness, which we hope will be helpful to those who have not yet decided about vaccination with a third dose.”
Here in the UK, booster shots have been made available to people most at risk from the virus.
This includes people aged 50 and over, people who live and work in care homes, frontline health and social workers, as well as people aged 16 and over who are at risk due to their health.
The NHS said: “People who are pregnant and in one of the eligible groups can also get a booster dose.”
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