RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to a new study conducted in Israel, a country conducting a booster vaccination campaign under threat of vaccination certificate revocation, the third dose of Pfizer/BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine can significantly reduce infection rates in people aged 60 and older.
Confirmed infections among people in this age group were 11 times lower than those that received only two doses. The rate of severe cases was almost 20 times lower among people who had been revaccinated.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Ministry of Health conducted the study in partnership with an interdisciplinary group of professionals from several universities in the country.
The researchers followed more than 1.1 million Israeli residents, all aged 60 and older. These people were divided into two groups: with and without booster doses.
Israel began administering the booster doses on July 30, prioritizing people over 60, and the study was completed on August 31. The infection rates were calculated 12 days after the extra dose was given so that the immunizer would affect the population.
On Monday, an international group of experts, including representatives from the World Health Organization, had stated in an article published in The Lancet that most of the global population does not need a booster dose now.
NATURAL IMMUNITY
The global debate of Covid mRNA vaccine mandates and passports has ignited social media, policymakers, and policies that impact nearly every aspect of public life.
According to an earlier Israeli study, the natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
It’s the largest real-world observational study so far to compare natural and vaccine-induced immunity to SARS-CoV-2, according to its leaders.
The Israeli researchers discovered that immunity acquired through infection from Covid-19 is superior to immunity from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The study also found that fully vaccinated but uninfected people were significantly more likely to have a “breakthrough” Covid infection than people who had previously been infected and recovered from the disease.