translated from Spanish: Israeli Study: Third Dose of Pfizer Vaccine Offers 10 Times More Protection Than Second

A study released today by the Israeli Ministry of Health indicated that the levels of immunity to the coronavirus of those who received the third dose of the Pfizer vaccine are 10 times higher than those who received the second at least five months ago. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that boosting the vaccine reduced both the chance of contagion and developing severe symptoms of the disease in those who received it. The research was based on the analysis of more than one million people over the age of 60, who were divided into two groups: in one those vaccinated with only two doses and at least five months ago and in the other people vaccinated with the third dose at least 12 days ago. The number of coronavirus cases recorded among the group that did not have the third dose during the study period was close to 4,500, while among those who did have the vaccine booster only 934 were detected.As for severe cases, the difference is even larger, with 294 severe cases identified among the first group and only 29 in the second.” It is clear that the vaccine booster is very effective in reducing the rate of infection and the number of severe cases,” said the study authors, who belong to a wide range of Israeli scientific, academic and medical organizations, and including the Ministry of Health. especially to contribute to the “formulation of policies in countries that are exploring strategies to mitigate the pandemic”. Israel is currently facing a fourth wave of the pandemic and authorities have pointed out on multiple occasions that inoculating the population with the third dose is essential to stop it, in part due to the decrease in immunity provided by the vaccine after a few months. So far, of the country’s just over nine million people, nearly a third of them have received the booster, about half of the just over six million vaccinated with at least one dose. In recent weeks, in parallel with the advance of vaccination, new infections and severe cases were increasingly limited to the unvaccinated, who represent about 10% of the population and 65% of the 667 patients currently hospitalized for coronavirus.

Original source in Spanish