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Now that booster shots are being used at a rapid pace in our country, a study in Israel has shown that a fourth shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine increases the number of antibodies fivefold in a week. The country is going to offer risk groups a fourth shot.
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tgSource: cnn
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The study results are preliminary and have yet to be further assessed and published in professional journals. But the results are very promising, say virologists and vaccinologists.
“This is already good news,” said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has welcomed the decision to recommend it.
“That is an indicator of a very high probability that the fourth dose will protect vaccinated people to a high degree against infection and to some extent against severe symptoms.”
Israel began rolling out a fourth shot of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday for people aged 60 and older, as well as health professionals. But this study, conducted at Sheba Medical Center just outside Tel Aviv, used healthy hospital workers as test subjects.
Bennett’s spokesman said the results increase the likelihood of a fourth shot being rolled out to the general population, although the final decision would rest with Department of Health Director-General Nachman Ash.
The seven-day average of daily cases in Israel stands at 5,273, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. The highest seven-day average was 9,426 between August and September last year.
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