Por Jennifer Rigby
LONDON24 March – A booster dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 continues to provide strong protection against hospitalization for older people nearly four months after the third dose, new data from the UK Health Security Agency showed on Thursday.
Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization for people over 65, 15 weeks after the booster, was 85%, versus 91% two weeks after receiving the third dose, the agency’s latest vaccine surveillance report estimated. .
The data is the first published by the UK on the long-term durability of the reinforcements.
The UK is administering fourth doses to vulnerable age groups, joining other countries including Israel as the world battles the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The fourth dose will be administered six months after the third and a broader fall campaign is being considered.
The report tries to distinguish between people who were hospitalized because of the COVID and those who were in hospital with an illness and tested positive as part of routine check-ups.
The figures come from calculations of people who are in hospital primarily for respiratory problems, suggesting that their admission is more likely to be related to COVID.
For people aged 18 to 64, the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization appears to show a steeper drop: to 7% after 15 weeks, compared to 88% two weeks after the dose.
But the agency said this was probably because younger people were more likely to be in the hospital for another reason and also have COVIDskewing the numbers to make the vaccines appear less effective.
However, the report reiterated that protection against symptomatic disease falls much more dramatically for all groups: from about 60 to 75% effective two to four weeks after a booster, to 25 to 40% after 15 weeks.
–
