In recent weeks, we’ve all been encouraged to get our booster vaccine by the government to protect us against the new Omicron variant of coronavirus - and now new data shows just how effective one, two, and three doses are against it.
The Health Security Agency published a chart on Friday (31 December) showing their findings based on data gathered between 27 November and 24 December 2021, around the time when the Omicron variant began to emerge and spread.
Findings show that vaccines are less effective at protecting us from the Omicron variant, compared to Delta - another Covid variant. However, the vaccines do have higher protection against hospitalisation, impressively reducing this by 88 per cent after two weeks.
Over time, the protection against hospitalisation decreases after initial jabs but the numbers show that a booster could increase protection once more, Business Insider reported.
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Eric Topol the director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, tweeted about the report on Friday and wrote: “The new @UKHSA report today strongly reinforces the benefit of the 3rd shot (booster) vs Omicron for reducing hospitalization: 88% (this is the 1st time we’ve seen such VE data for booster vs severe disease).”
The new @UKHSA report today strongly reinforces the benefit of the 3rd shot (booster) vs Omicron for reducing hospitalization: 88% https://t.co/gVl5c5o9nl (this is the 1st time we've seen such VE data for booster vs severe disease) pic.twitter.com/8g2cGcl4eU
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 31, 2021
These results are good news after World Health Organisation Director, General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Omicron would pressure hospitals that are already “on the brink of collapse” with a “tsunami” of Covid cases.
This data is one of the first formal reports which looked at how good the booster was when up against Omicron.
This is a full breakdown of the risk reduction from getting vaccinated and boosted against all of the Covid vaccinations available in the UK:
Hospital risk reduction
- First dose - 52 per cent
- Second dose - 72 per cent within 24 weeks and 52 per cent after this
- Third dose (booster) - 88 per cent after two weeks
Catching symptoms risk reduction
- First dose - 26 per cent within four weeks
- Second dose - 18 per cent within 24 weeks
- Third dose (booster) - 63 per cent within two weeks
