In a new study from Vanderbilt University, researchers found that two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine result in lower effectiveness for preventing hospitalization for the omicron variant (65 percent) than previous variants, including alpha (85 percent) and delta (85 percent).
However, importantly, a third (“booster”) vaccine dose strongly improves protection against omicron hospitalization up to 86 percent.
The team looked at the alpha, delta and omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2. The data included nearly 12,000 patients enrolled at 21 hospitals across the United States.
They say two things may be contributing to the lower protection from the vaccines against omicron, including waning immunity over time and evasion of this particular variant from the effects of vaccines.
The research shows that booster or third vaccine doses, which are now recommended for all adults, are critically important for protection against omicron.
It’s good news that the current vaccine formulations do have effectiveness against omicron, but it means people need to get that third dose.
At this time, the CDC is reporting 64.1 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated and 42.3 percent received the booster.
The team says omicron indeed is causing a lot of people to be hospitalized. And if you are hospitalized with omicron, it’s still a very severe disease.
Fifteen percent of people hospitalized with the omicron variant of COVID-19 required ventilators and 7 percent died.
Another finding in this research is the number of breakthrough cases detected during the omicron surge.
Because more people are getting vaccinated over time and omicron seems to be somewhat less susceptible to vaccines, researchers are seeing people in the hospital who have been fully vaccinated who are sick with omicron.
However, the severity of illness for people who have been vaccinated is less than for those who have not been vaccinated.
This type of disease attenuation is important to understand because it shows that the vaccines are helpful even to people who do get COVID after vaccination.
Researchers conclude vaccinations against COVID-19, including the third dose, continue to be the best protection from becoming critically ill or dying from the virus.
If you care about COVID, please read studies that slow walkers four times more likely to die from COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccines can effectively cut ICU stays.
For more information about Covid, please see recent studies about two paths toward ‘super immunity’ to COVID-19, and results showing that CBD from cannabis may inhibit COVID-19 infection.
The study was conducted by Wesley Self et al.
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