- Oct 17, 2011
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In the first real-world test of vaccine boosters specially designed to protect against the Omicron variant, Israeli researchers have found that people 65 and over who got an updated jab were 81% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than those who did not.
The preliminary findings, posted to a website established by the British medical journal Lancet, have not yet been through the peer-review process. They are based on the medical records of more than 85,000 people 65 and over who got a dose of Pfizer and BioNTech’s retooled mRNA booster and more than 537,000 others in the same age group who did not get the shot.
During a 70-day period between late September and mid-December, 297 people in the larger, unboosted group were hospitalized and 73 died. During the same period, six people in the boosted group were hospitalized and one died.
Those results suggest that — in the initial weeks after vaccination at least — the Omicron-specific vaccines are even more effective than had been documented to date.
The preliminary findings, posted to a website established by the British medical journal Lancet, have not yet been through the peer-review process. They are based on the medical records of more than 85,000 people 65 and over who got a dose of Pfizer and BioNTech’s retooled mRNA booster and more than 537,000 others in the same age group who did not get the shot.
During a 70-day period between late September and mid-December, 297 people in the larger, unboosted group were hospitalized and 73 died. During the same period, six people in the boosted group were hospitalized and one died.
Those results suggest that — in the initial weeks after vaccination at least — the Omicron-specific vaccines are even more effective than had been documented to date.
