According to a new study, the fourth COVID vaccine dose provides little to no protection against virus transmission According to the findings of a new study, vaccination with a fourth dose of the mRNA vaccines did not provide any greater protection against COVID-19 transmission than vaccination with three doses.
Fourth COVID vaccine dose provides little to no protection against virus transmission
READ ALSO , Tinnitus is a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine
The Effectiveness of a Fourth Dose
According to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, scientists discovered that the fourth dose of the mRNA coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna was effective in preventing the virus from infecting people. According to the findings of the Sheba Medical Center’s experts, the fourth dose provided little to no protection against the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.
READ ALSO Major Reasons Why COVID-19 Cases Are Rising In UK
The team assessed 1,050 eligible health care workers who were included in the Sheba cohort as part of the trial. Out of the total, 154 people received a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccination, whereas 120 people received a fourth dose of the Moderna vaccine a week after that. Two age-matched controls were chosen from among the remaining eligible health care employees to serve as a comparison group for each participant.
Both vaccines elicited IgG antibodies against severe COVID-19 and enhanced neutralizing antibody titers, indicating that they were equally effective. Antibody levels in the controls, on the other hand, continued to decline. Interesting, the researchers discovered that, when compared to a total of three doses of the mRNA vaccinations, the fourth dose of the vaccines did not always result in significant protection against the virus.
The efficacy of the fourth dosage of Pfizer’s SARS-CoV-2 vaccine against infection was 30%, while the efficacy of the Moderna vaccine against infection was just 11%. Notably, 18.3 percent of the participants in the Pfizer group contracted omicron, whereas 20.7 percent of the individuals in the Moderna group contracted the identical form of the virus. In the control group, 25.0 percent of the participants were infected with the Omicron strain.
Despite the fact that the fourth dose provided little to no protection against coronavirus transmission, it did give considerable protection against symptomatic infection among young and healthy persons who had received three doses of the mRNA vaccinations before the study.
‘We found no differences in terms of IgG antibody levels or neutralizing antibody levels, which reached a level similar to that measured a month after the third dose was administered,’ said Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at Sheba Medical Center and the study’s lead researcher, in an interview with the Israel Post.
Is There a Need for a Fourth Dose?
Despite the fact that the epidemic is already in its second year, there has been continued discussion about whether or not a fourth dose should be administered. The study’s intermediate findings revealed that a fourth dose did not provide significantly better protection than the first three doses, but that it would play a significant role in the long-term fight against the new coronavirus if it were implemented.
It was pointed out by Regev-Yochay that the fourth dose would be required for people with risk factors in order to ensure that they were protected from the more dangerous type of COVID (19). The findings also contribute to the development of a scientific foundation for improved pandemic management.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla stated on CBS’ “Face The Nation” last weekend that the fourth dose would be required in order for patients to remain safe for a longer period of time. Because the immunity produced by vaccines tends to diminish over a period of time, having another shot would be beneficial in extending the duration of protection against the virus. Fourth COVID vaccine dose provides little to no protection against virus transmission