Third COVID shot boosts immunity tenfold - Israeli study now peer-reviewed
The rate of confirmed infections and of severe cases of COVID-19 was more than 10 times lower among people who received the booster compared to people who did not.
Third vaccine doses being administered at the
Amigdor Retirement Residence by Magen David Adom (MDA), Jerusalem,
August 5, 2021.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)
Taking a third dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine
boosts the immunity of recipients more than tenfold compared to those
who received only two doses of the vaccine more than five prior,
according to a report published Wednesday night by Israeli researchers
in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A
version of the study had been previously published and reported on,
though not peer-reviewed, at the beginning of the month on the online
research hub MedRxiv.
The
rate of confirmed infections was more than 10 times (11.3) lower among
people who received the booster compared to people who did not. The rate
of severe infection was close to 20 times (19.5) lower.
The report was published just as the American Food & Drug
Administration is meant to discuss an earlier decision by President Joe
Biden to follow Israel and administer booster shots to all eligible
citizens. America is already providing third doses to people who are
immunosuppressed.
Biden
and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a plan on
August 18 - about two-and-a-half weeks after Israel opened up boosters
to adults over the age of 60 - to begin offering the booster shots
the week of September 20. Israel’s decision was based on research that
showed that vaccine-induced immunity heavily wanes around five months
after the second shot.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis is supposed to present Israel's research before the FDA on Friday.
Israel
made boosters available to everyone over the age of 12 at the end of
August. So far, nearly 3 million Israelis have been jabbed with a third
shot. The country continues to have an average of 10,000 new cases per
day. However, unvaccinated people comprise 65% of all severe infections
in the country and around 90% of all individuals who are connected to
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines.
Israel
opened boosters to everyone over the age of 12 at the end of August. So
far, nearly 3 million Israelis have been jabbed with a third shot. The
country continues to have an average of 10,000 new cases per day.
However, unvaccinated people compose 65% of all severe infections in the
country and around 90% of all individuals who are connected to
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines.
Biden
announced that in the US boosters would be available starting eight
months after an individual’s second dose of Pfizer or Moderna.
But
moving forward with booster shots was always subject to the FDA
conducting an independent evaluation and determination of the safety and
effectiveness of a third dose together with the CDC’s Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices.
An
essay published in the peer-reviewed Lancet medical journal on Monday
by an international group of vaccine experts came out in opposition to
providing third doses to the general population. The authors said that
recent studies show that the vaccine continues to offer strong
protection against the virus, including the Delta variant. They
recommend holding off to give vaccine makers time to modify the vaccine
to match specific or new coronavirus variants rather than simply
providing an extra dose of the original version.
An elderly Israeli is seen receiving the third COVID-19 booster shot at a
Clalit clinic in Jerusalem, on August 1, 2021. (credit: MARC ISRAEL
SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
The
Israeli study makes “evident that booster vaccination is very effective
at reducing the rate of both confirmed infection and severe illness,”
according to a joint release by the authors.
Specifically,
the research team divided over a million eligible Israelis over the age
of 60 into two groups: those who had gotten the booster shot and those
who had not. Membership in either group was dynamic; individuals who at
first belonged to the non-booster group left it and joined the booster
group 12 days after receiving the booster dose.
Overall,
4,439 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 294 cases of severe
illness were reported in the non-booster cohort, compared to only 934
new cases and 29 severely ill individuals in the booster cohort.
“Twelve
days or more after the booster dose was administered, the rate of
confirmed infections and of severe illness cases was more than ten times
lower in the booster cohort compared to the non-booster cohort,” a
release on the study explained. “An additional more conservative
analysis that was aimed at neutralizing possible behavioral
differences between the two cohorts, revealed that the booster
cohort had about a five-fold lower rate of confirmed
infections.”
People
vaccinated with two doses more than six months ago are only half as
likely as unvaccinated people to get the virus, according to other
studies conducted in Israel. People who get the booster dose, however,
become only 5% as likely as unvaccinated people to get sick, this study
showed. In other words, the vaccine efficacy for individuals who got a
third dose of the Pfizer vaccine stands at about 95% - similar to the
original “fresh” vaccine efficacy that was reported against the original
Wuhan strain.
However,
the researchers ctioned in the journal article that "in terms of
real-world effectiveness, the size of such an effect remains unclear."
The
study was a collaboration of researchers from the Health Ministry, the
Weizmann Institute of Science, the Technion – Israel Institute of
Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Gertner Institute
at Sheba Medical Center, and the KI Research Institute.
The
team said that future studies should determine the long-term efficacy
of the booster dose against the Delta variant and other potential future
variants of concern.
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