Third dose of the vaccine appears to boost level of protection from about 35 percent to about 75 percent<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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MONDAY, Dec. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) — The ability of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines to protect against symptomatic infection by the omicron variant falls significantly short, but a booster shot provides considerable protection, according to the first real-world study<\/a> of how effective vaccines are against the rapidly spreading new form of the coronavirus. The findings are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.<\/p>\n Four months after their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, people had only about 35 percent protection against symptomatic infection by omicron, which is significantly lower than against the delta variant, British government scientists said. But a third dose of the vaccine boosted that level of protection to about 75 percent, according to the study published Friday, The New York Times<\/em> reported. Several months after vaccination, two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine provided virtually no protection against symptomatic infection from omicron, but a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine increased protection to 71 percent.<\/p>\n Despite their findings, the researchers said they expect that the vaccines will still provide an important defense against omicron-related hospitalizations and death, The Times <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n Omicron cases in England are doubling every 2.5 days. By mid-December, omicron could overtake delta in the United Kingdom and, without any precautionary measures, cause COVID-19 cases to soar, according to government scientists.<\/p>\n A computer modeling study of England released on Saturday suggests that even in populations with high levels of immunity, omicron could cause significant societal disruptions and overwhelm hospitals, The Times<\/em> reported. A person infected with omicron is about three times more likely than someone infected with delta to pass the virus to other members of his or her household, and a close contact of someone with omicron is about two times more likely than a close contact of someone with delta to become infected, according to the Health Security Agency in Britain.<\/p>\n