[ad_1]
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided more than a year of bad news, but the release of safe and highly effective vaccines has provided at least one bright spot in the fight against the virus. But due to the very nature of how vaccines work, health experts began to wonder how long the initial doses would keep people safe from infection, and how urgent a potential booster might be. The most recent insight into the problem comes from a large new study that looked at how protected Pfizer vaccine recipients were as early as five months after receiving their vaccines, concluding that there was indeed a change over time. time.
RELATED: Pfizer Just Said It “Strongly” Boosts Protection Against the Delta Variant.
Researchers working with the UK Zoe COVID Study app analyzed data from more than 400,000 people who received the Pfizer vaccine to verify its effectiveness over time. The results showed that the injections offered 88% efficacy against the virus one month after the second dose before dropping to 74% five or six months after the injection was given.
The team behind the study said the researchers collected all the data after May 26, when the Delta variant became the dominant strain in the UK. people. However, they also pointed out that the results didn’t mean the snaps themselves were not worth getting.
“A decreasing protection is to be expected and is not a reason not to be vaccinated”, Tim spector, MB, principal investigator on the Zoe COVID Study app, said when presenting the results during a webinar on Aug. 24. “Vaccines still provide high levels of protection for the majority of the population, especially against the Delta variant, so we still need as many people as possible to get the full vaccine.”
RELATED: If You Got This Vaccine, You May Be Better Protected Against Delta.
Spector also estimated that the vaccine’s efficacy could drop as much as 50% by winter and that the results underscore the need for boosters in part of the population, reports the BBC. Still, another expert involved in the research pointed out that the results are what one would expect from the shots over time.
“So we knew there was going to be some stabilization, and the way I see it is that the stabilization is actually a little slower than I expected,” Hammers of Alexander, MD, professor of imaging and neuroscience at King’s College London, told the webinar, which added that people were “still probably at least 50% protected” despite a “drop” in efficiency over time. “Remember when vaccines were first developed, it was hoped that they would be 60 to 70 percent effective, and everyone was pleasantly surprised that they reached well over 80 percent, sometimes well over 90 “, he stressed.
Other recent research has shown that COVID vaccines can lose their effectiveness over time. In a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on August 18, residents of 3,862 nursing homes were analyzed from March 1 to May 9, while Alpha was the dominant variant. Later, about 15,254 nursing homes were scanned from June 21 to August 1, when the Delta variant took over. Although the study did not measure protection against serious illness, the results found that vaccine effectiveness rates against COVID-19 infections fell from 75% to 53% overall. The study’s authors concluded that “additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine may be considered for residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities.”
RELATED: For more up to date information, subscribe to our daily newsletter.
Likewise, the authors of the Zoe COVID Study app also pointed out that not all members of the population will need a booster to boost COVID-19 immunity. “A lot of people might not need it. A lot of people may have had a natural booster because they’ve had a natural COVID infection before, so they will have effectively had three vaccines,” Spector said. “So I think everything needs to be handled a lot more carefully than just giving it to everyone, which would be a huge waste and ethically questionable given the resources we have. I think we need a more focused approach than last time. “
RELATED: If You Did It Before Your Pfizer Vaccine, You May Be More Protected.
[ad_2]
Source link