Pfizer’s corona vaccine protects 90 percent against hospitalization after infection, after full vaccination, for at least six months, a new study in the scientific journal shows The Lancet. However, the protection against infection decreases considerably over time. The results are in line with the data in our country, confirms Steven Van Gucht of Sciensano, and seem to underline the importance of a booster shot. “It is on the table for risk groups younger than 65 and also for those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – and therefore only one shot,” says the virologist.
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During the first month after the second vaccination, Pfizer/BioNTech still protects 88 percent against contracting the virus, after five months only 47 percent, the scientists behind the study found in The Lancet. According to them, the study results show that booster doses of the vaccine will be needed to keep the protection high. The study ran for about half a year and the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization did not decrease during that period.
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According to the scientists, the research therefore proves that the vaccine protects well against hospital admissions, even now that the more contagious delta variant of the virus is dominant. According to the scientists, the declining effectiveness of the vaccine against infection is probably due to declining immunity and not so much because the delta variant bypasses the vaccines.
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Sciensano virologist Steven Van Gucht says the results are in line with what scientists in our country have established. “The vaccines in general protect against hospitalization well, with relatively small differences between them. The mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer score slightly better than the vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. We do see that the protection against mild complaints decreases with time and with age. Older people over the age of 80 seem even more susceptible.”
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According to Van Gucht, there is no unambiguous reason for the increase in breakthrough infections – fully vaccinated people who nevertheless test positive. “The vaccine may reduce immunity, but there is also more virus circulating, while our contacts with others increase, especially among the vaccinated. That can also lead to more positive cases. But the protection against hospitalization remains high.”
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Van Gucht sees a booster shot primarily as a precautionary measure. “First of all, we want to avoid hospitalizations and deaths. I fully support a third shot because you want to get ahead of a potential reduction in protection against hospitalization. It is better to take that third dose a few months later to better train the long-term memory of our immune system.
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The Vaccination Taskforce met again on Saturday, view the opinion of chairman Dirk Ramaekers about a booster shot for the entire population below:
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It has already been decided that people over 65 can get a booster shot. A third dose is also administered to people with an immune disease, but according to Van Gucht, this is in theory not a booster shot. For those people, just three injections are provided instead of two, because some barely respond to the vaccine, explains the virologist. But then there are the risk groups younger than 65 and the people who have only had one shot because they received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “I don’t think this is urgent, but the Superior Health Council is looking into it. The third shot for those people is on the table.”
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Van Gucht is not in favor of the system in Israel, where they have chosen to “always aim for high antibodies”. “I don’t know if that’s necessary,” he concludes.
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Deltavariant
Another study, still awaiting a peer review, examined 139,164 contacts from 95,716 people infected with Covid between January and August this year in the UK. At that time, the alpha and delta variants were still fighting for dominance. It turned out that the vaccines did offer some protection, but fully vaccinated people who contracted the delta variant were almost twice as likely to pass on the virus than those infected with the alpha variant. The effect of the vaccine also faded over time. Three months after the second shot of AstraZeneca, the infection rate of 67 percent was already at the level of unvaccinated people. Two weeks after the full vaccination, there was still a 57 percent chance that a high-risk contact would contract the virus. At Pfizer, those numbers went from 42 to 58 percent.
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The results “may explain why we have seen so much further transmission of the delta variant despite widespread vaccination,” said David Eyre, co-author and epidemiologist at the University of Oxford. But according to him, they also suggest that a booster shot could potentially reduce the transmission of the virus.
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150,000 booster shots
Since an extra dose of the corona vaccine was started in September to people from certain vulnerable groups, almost 150,000 such booster shots have been given in Belgium, according to health institute Sciensano. The counter of the number of extra shots on October 3 was 148,412.
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The extra shots are administered with the vaccine from Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech.
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