Preliminary data from Israel highlight that the second booster would not be sufficient to protect against infection. Ema: new recall only to the very frail who received three doses in the primary vaccination
Israel the first country in the world to start administering the fourth dose of anti Covid vaccine to health workers, over 60s and frail patients. What emerges from preliminary data that the fourth dose of Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccine does not provide much protection against variant contagion Omicron. Although the second booster did increase the level of antibodies up to five times
neutralizing the result not sufficient to counter Omicron, variant profoundly changed which largely eludes vaccination-induced neutralizing antibodies.
The growth in antibody levels we see with Moderna and Pfizer slightly higher than what we saw after the third dose of the vaccine, he says. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Tel Aviv’s Sheba Medical Center, who conducted the research. Despite the increase in the level of antibodies, the fourth dose offers only a partial defense against the virus – explains the professor – We have seen many people infected with Omicron after the fourth dose. A little less than in the control group, but always a lot. According to Regev-Yochay, the excellent vaccine against Alpha and Delta variants, but not good enough for Omicron. We now know that the level of antibodies needed to protect and not get infected with Omicron is probably too high for the vaccine, even if a good vaccine, the scientists concluded.
The survey did not take into account the T cell-induced immune memory, able to counteract not so much infection, accomplished more than neutralizing antibodies, but rather severe disease.
The research was conducted on 150 people who received a fourth dose of Pfizer 2 weeks ago and 120 others, who had done three Pfizer doses, received a fourth dose with Moderna (all healthcare professionals) a week ago. This is the first research on the fourth dose also conducted with the combination of different vaccines, but the results of the two groups after a week appear very similar.
The Israeli study only started on December 27 and so far it has only been possible to verify the effectiveness of the fourth dose after a short time. Israel hopes the extra booster can help prevent the Omicron variant from overloading hospitals, allowing a return to normal life, howeverand the country struggling with a new wave of hospitalizations and deaths despite third and fourth doses because as time passes the protection tends to diminish and even the vaccinated are easily infected with Omicron. But what will happen in September when perhaps new variants will appear, as the World Health Organization has already predicted and the infections will start to grow again after the expected summer break?
So far booster boosters have already been administered to more than half a million people which had been vaccinated for the last time this summer and Israeli health authorities still decided to administer a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine, despite it seeming useless to Omicron, which is prevalent in the country. The Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health, Nachman Ash He called the results of the preliminary studies unsurprising given that some people were infected with Omicron despite getting the fourth dose of the vaccine. In any case, he added interviewed by Ynet, we evaluate that the protection from severe morbidity, especially for the elderly and the population at risk, is still offered by the fourth dose of the vaccine. So I urge people to keep coming to get vaccinated.
The fourth dose is generally not favored by the scientific community for logistical, economic but above all for effectiveness reasons. Currently, there is no evidence for the need for a fourth dose in the general population with current Covid-19 vaccines, said the head of the vaccination strategy of the EMA (European Medicines Agency), Marco Cavaleri which says: It would be reasonable for public health authorities to consider administering a fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine only to people with severely weakened immune systems, who received 3 doses for primary vaccination. Furthermore, repeated administration of booster doses of the Covid vaccine at very short intervals could reduce the level of antibodies which can be produced at each administration as the immunologist Sergio Abrignani and his colleague Mario Clerici had already explained.
January 18, 2022 (change January 18, 2022 | 19:07)
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