Booster protection against Omicron variant symptoms drops by 25% within 10 weeks, though it's not yet clear if everyone will need further doses in 2022.
The UK Health Security Agency said protection against the variant dropped from 70% to 45% after a Pfizer booster for those initially vaccinations with the shot developed by Pfizer with BioNTech.
The agency found the effectiveness of Moderna's booster with two doses of Pfizer vaccine held at 70% to 75% for up to 9 weeks, though not many people in the study received this regimen, which could affect the accuracy of the finding.
After 10 weeks, the effectiveness of the booster dropped from 45% to 40% for those who were fully vaccine-vaccinated.
The director of the research institute said on Thursday that the UK findings were a "replication" of what has been seen in Israel.
December 24, 2021.
Israel became the first country to announce fourth doses to try and bolster immunity against Omicron for people older than 60.
The UK is holding on to more data on how well existing regimen work and also the safety and effectiveness of additional doses.
In the US, most people with immunocompromised can get a fourth dose after six months. The Centers for Disease Control recommends that people get a single dose of the vaccine.
Dr. Mary Ramsay told the Independent that the UK wouldn't change its policy on vaccinations until they knew more about the effect Omicron had on the protection against severe disease.
The agency said it would be a few weeks before booster protection against severe COVID-19 caused by Omicron could be estimated because there hadn't been many people getting sick from it. "Based on experience with previous variants, this is likely to be substantially higher than the estimates against the disease," it said.
Adam Finn, a member of the group of experts that advise the UK government, told LBC radio on Friday that the committee would give recommendations in the new year.
We need to see how this wave goes on. He said that there may be people who received their boosters early who may need a further jab, but that has not been decided yet.
The UK researchers compared the vaccination rates in people who had tested positive for Omicron on a lab test with those who tested negative between November 27 and December 17 to get the figures. People with foreign travel were not included in the analysis.
The experts said the priority was still to get the vaccine to the people who weren'tvaccinated.
