Pfizer Booster Shot Reduced COVID Infection Risk In Study

A third shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech SE COVID vaccine provides added protection against the coronavirus during a delta outbreak, according to early data from Israel, where boosters began rolling out incrementally in mid-July, Jason Gale reported for Bloomberg News.

Photo Insert: In Finland, the nurse Andrea Nummi being vaccinated by Heli Laaksonen.

People who received the supplemental dose had a 48% to 68% lower risk of infection a week to 13 days later, compared to those who got the standard two-dose regimen, a preliminary analysis of data from Maccabi Healthcare Services found.

The protection increased with time, with a 70% to 84% reduced risk of testing positive two weeks to 20 days after getting a third shot.

The research, released Tuesday ahead of peer-review and publication, assessed the additional effectiveness of a booster shot against infection due to the delta variant, but not severe disease, according to the researchers led by Daniel M. Weinberger, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven, Connecticut.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC