The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new research showing that a third COVID-19 booster vaccine provides great protection against serious illness from the Omicron coronavirus variant.
- A new study by the CDC has shown that a COVID-19 booster vaccination dose is highly protective against becoming very ill from the Omicron variant.
- People who had received a COVID-19 boost dose were less likely to be admitted to the hospital or end up in the emergency room.
- A second study showed that older adults who have had a booster were more likely to be protected from infection and death than those who didn’t.
“These reports add further evidence to the importance of being up-to-date with COVID vaccines — that means getting your primary and getting boosted when you are eligible — to protect against severe COVID-19,” Dr. Rochelle Waensky, director at the CDC, stated Friday at a White House briefing.
Researchers analyzed data from 10 states between August 2021 and January 2022 in a study called Source.
The authors found that people who had received the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine were 82% less likely to be admitted to an emergency room or clinic in the Omicron wave than those who did not receive it.
They were also 90% less likely to be admitted than those who were not vaccinated.
Both types of protection were less during the Omicron wave than the Delta wave.
Other studies have shown that has booster protection
The second study, Source by the CDC, looked at COVID-19 deaths and cases reported in 25 states and local health departments between April 2021 and December 2021.
Researchers found that people who had received a booster dose were more protected against infections and deaths during the Delta wave than those who were fully vaccinated, but not boosted.
The Omicron wave also saw a higher level of protection against infection for those who were boosted. Researchers did not have any data about deaths occurring during the Omicron wave due to the delay in reporting COVID-19 deaths.
People over 65 years of age were protected the most, followed closely by those between 50 and 64 years.
Dr. Shobha Swaminathan is an associate professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and an infectious diseases physician.
She found that people who were not vaccinated had a 20-fold higher chance of dying from COVID-19 in their study than those who were fully vaccinated.
A third study was published in the journal of the American Medical AssociationTrusted Source. It looked at data from over 70,000 people who had been tested for coronavirus infection using a pharmacy-based program.
The authors discovered that three doses of vaccine provided greater protection against symptomatic infections than two doses or unvaccinated.
Omicron was less protected than Delta by boosters and full vaccinations. Laboratory studies show that Omicron can partially overcome the immunity provided by vaccines and prior immunity.
Last week, the CDC published additional COVID-19 data on its website. It showed that in December, unvaccinated Americans aged 50-64 were 44 percent more likely to be hospitalized than those who had been fully vaccinated and received the third dose.
Hospitalization rates for those 65 years and older who were not vaccinated were 49 times higher.
CDC urges Americans to keep up-to-date on vaccination
These studies have shown that boosters and full vaccinations provide strong protection against infection and hospitalization during the Omicron wave.
Swaminathan stated that these data “support what we’re seeing in hospitals and institutions across this country.” “Most COVID-19-related deaths and ICU admissions occur among people who have not been vaccinated. This research should encourage more people to be vaccinated.
Just over 210 million Americans, which is about 63 percent, have had two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Just under 84 million people have received a booster dose, which is about 40% of those who are fully vaccinated.
The CDC recommends that booster doses be given to anyone 12 years old or older, trusted Source at least 5 months following the primary series of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIAID vaccines or 2 months after a single Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The agency is now asking Americans to get boosters regularly, and not just to be fully vaccinated.
Walensky stated at the media briefing that “if you are eligible for boosters and have not gotten them, then you aren’t up to date.”
