KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Pfizer’s Covid-19 booster shot can offer protection for nine to 10 months or longer, according to preliminary data from research conducted by an Israeli hospital that was leaked to local news outlet, Channel 12.
It was reported that Pfizer’s booster shot yields more antibodies that are also stronger at preventing the disease. Based on their analysis of antibody levels, researchers at the Tel Hashomer Hospital concluded that the third Pfizer booster Covid-19 shot could be effective for nine to 10 months, or even longer.
Details on the scope or methodology of the Tel Hashomer study, however, were not included in the news report.
The result of the antibody level study is expected to be made public in two to four weeks, which the network said will show that the third shot offers a “different” and “improved” protection from Pfizer’s two-dose primary series. Israel has almost exclusively used the Pfizer vaccine.
Israel was the first country to widely adopt boosters and began its mass booster campaign in August after finding that the protection offered by its initial two-dose vaccine campaign had waned after about five months.
The latest research follows a large-scale Israeli study published last month that showed that a third booster shot was 92 per cent effective in preventing serious illness compared to those who received only two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
The study, published in the Lancet medical journal, involved 728,321 people who received the third shot compared to a control group of a similar number who received only two shots at least five months before.
The results of the study found that a third dose is 93 per cent effective at preventing hospital admissions, with 231 hospitalisations recorded for the two-dose group, versus 29 hospital admissions among those who received a booster shot.
Similarly, the rate stood at 92 per cent for severe disease with 157 cases in the control group compared to 17 among those in the third shot category.
The study also found the booster shot was 81 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 deaths, with seven recorded among those who got a booster shot compared to 44 deaths among those with just two vaccine shots.
