The new bivalent vaccines against COVID-19 They are good protection against all people, especially the elderly, an age group that is highly vulnerable to infections caused by respiratory viruses that, like SARS-Cov-2, are still present and mutating.
In a single application, these vaccines combine the stimulus for our immune system to produce antibodies against the first original strains of the disease. COVID-19 and against the new Ómicron variants and the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants
The reinforcement with the bivalent vaccine showed high levels of protection against disease COVID-19 and very low hospitalization in older adults, according to an observational study conducted in Israel. In more than 600,000 adults 65 years and older who were boosted with the bivalent vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech, 81% had very low risks of hospitalization compared with those who did not receive the booster, reported Ronen Arbel, PhD, Clalit Health Services in Tel Aviv, Israel. “Reinforcement with bivalent vaccine was also associated with an 86% reduction in mortality from COVID-19 in information published in The Lancet”.
“Only 14% of eligible older adults received the booster during the study, which the authors say was due to misinformation about the vaccines, reports of side effects, and the belief that after infection, production of antibodies makes vaccines unnecessary. However, our findings highlight the importance of booster vaccination with the bivalent, to recommend that older adults get vaccinated (Arbel & Cols.)
In the US, according to a CDC report, only 39% of individuals 65 years of age or older have received boosters with bivalent vaccines, authorized by the FDA in August of last year despite previous reports demonstrating effectiveness 73% and 84% against COVID-19 and hospitalization.
The study by Arbel and Cols is one of the first worldwide to offer real data on the effectiveness of bivalent vaccine in the prevention of hospitalization and also of deaths in a population that, like the elderly, is so fragile and vulnerable to respiratory viruses.
We Dominicans are not the only ones who have turned our backs on scientific evidence and the call of the experts who, in record time, produced the vaccines that managed to break the natural course of a hitherto new virus, which could have killed more than 80 millions of people like the Spanish flu virus did, and who ask us to get vaccinated.
REFERENCE: “Bivalent Vaccine Slashes Covid Hospitalization In Seniors”. Ingrid Hein, MedPage Today, January 18, 2023.
