Corona pandemic
Boosters significantly increase vaccination protection
A booster vaccination significantly reduces the risk of developing Covid-19 or dying. Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Almost 16 million people in Germany have had their basic immunization against the coronavirus boosted so far. Data from Israel now show how well the booster works.
A booster vaccination significantly reduces the risk of developing Covid-19 or dying. This is shown by two Israeli studies in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Both studies relate to the mRNA vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer. Experts consider the result to be transferable to other vaccinations. The studies do not provide any information about the protection against Omikron because they consider a period before the discovery of the new variant.
A team led by Shlomit Yaron from Clalit Health Services in Tel Aviv compared the mortality rate of people who were vaccinated twice with the mRNA vaccine with that of people who also received a booster vaccination. The study included data from more than three quarters of a million people. You were 50 years or older and had received your second vaccination at least five months ago. In the group with a booster, the risk of dying from corona was only a tenth compared to the group without a booster.
Another group around Ron Milo from the Weizmann Institute
of Science in Rehovot focused on the effectiveness of booster vaccinations in different age groups. They evaluated data from 4.7 million people aged 16 and over. People who had been boosted at least twelve days beforehand were compared with people without a third-party vaccination.
Infections lower by a factor of 10
In the three-fold vaccinees, the number of confirmed infections across all age groups was roughly 10 times lower than in the two-fold vaccinees. Severe courses in people aged 60 and over were 17.9 less common in the booster group, and there were 14.7 fewer deaths.
In Germany, 15.6 million booster vaccinations were administered up to December 8th, according to the vaccination rate monitoring of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) – this corresponds to 18.7 percent of the population. According to the RKI, around 12 million of these booster vaccinations were carried out with Biontech, around three million with Moderna, around 3000 with Johnson & Johnson.
Knowledge transferable
Can the Biontech results from Israel be transferred to other vaccines? Yes, says Carsten Watzl, Secretary General of the German Society for Immunology. Other studies had previously shown that other basic immunizations – for example with Astrazeneca – can be boosted very well with a third mRNA vaccination. “Therefore you can certainly transfer this knowledge,” said Watzl of the German press agency.
The studies from Israel showed “that the booster again provides extremely good protection, especially against serious illness,” said Watzl. «And that across all age groups. So: everyone benefits from a booster. ” The studies only compare those who were vaccinated twice with those who were vaccinated three times, as the immunologist emphasizes. He would also find a comparison with unvaccinated people interesting, says Watzl: “That would show an even greater difference.” In addition, one would see that “people six months after the second vaccination still have a much better protection against serious illness than those who have not been vaccinated.”