As many countries began administering the third shot of Covid-19 vaccines, some remained skeptical about their necessity. However, the third dose has been recommended for the immunocompromised category and those over 65 in the U.S, and in some countries, for the general population. The largest real-world study conducted by the Clalit Research Institute Israel and Harvard University confirms that a third short of Pfizer BioNTech Covid vaccinate reduces the risk of severe symptoms; thus, it reduces hospitalizations and death.
Data from 1 158 269 individuals were analyzed for the study
According to the researchers, the aim of the study was to determine the effectiveness of the third dose of the mRNA Pfizer vaccine. Because the world has been dealing with a surge in the number of daily infections due to the highly contagious Delta variant, a third shot could be the solution to control the new infection wave.
Half of the participants had received a third dose between July and September, while the other half had received a second dose five months or more before the study. After the data analysis, the results indicated that a third dose reduces hospitalizations and deaths.
A third jab offers 92 % protection against severe disease
The findings showed that the third dose reduced hospitalization by 93%, severe disease by 92 %, and death by 81 %. All participants had received only doses of the Pfizer Covid vaccine. The biological gender of the participants, age groups, and underlying health conditions were taken into account, and the vaccine effectiveness was similar for everyone with a third dose.
One of the researchers, Prof. Ben Reis, Director of the Predictive Medicine Group at the Boston Children’s Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program and Harvard Medical
School, explained the importance of the findings:
To date, one of the main drivers of vaccine hesitancy has been a lack of information regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine. This careful epidemiological study provides reliable information on third-dose vaccine effectiveness, which we hope will be helpful to those who have not yet decided about vaccination with a third dose.
The CDC has published guidelines for COvid-19 booster jabs and those eligible. It is possible to receive a third shot of an mRNA vaccine or a second shot of J & J vaccines.
