Perhaps everyone knows by now that the Omicron variant of COVID is spreading across the world faster than any other previous variant. The US alone reports hundreds of thousands of infections every day.
But despite the incredibly high infectiousness, Omicron is obviously leading to fewer deaths, which is great. Researchers tried to offer some explanations for this phenomenon. They might have another reason to believe that severe disease from Omicron can successfully be avoided.
Getting ‘boosted’ is the answer, the CDC suggests
The Washington Post writes about new studies of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that analyzed hundreds of thousands of patients.
The conclusion is that if you get ‘boosted’ for COVID, meaning to get vaccinated with three shots with either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s jabs, you have 90 percent fewer chances to get hospitalized and 82 percent fewer chances to be in need of medical assistance in the emergency room.
Eric Topol, who’s a molecular medicine professor from Scripps Research, declared as referring to the findings and as cited by The Washington Post:
A booster is essential for preventing severe disease, hospitalization and deaths.
The protection offered by the two-dose scheme of vaccination is considered to have declined since Omicron became predominant, according to Mark G. Thomson, who’s a CDC epidemiologist and also the lead author of the first report. He said, as quoted by the same source mentioned above:
That’s the bad news,
The good news is that for people who received a third booster dose, the effectiveness of three doses is very high and protects against moderately severe and severe disease. This is among the first data that really shows the actual level of protection in the United States.
Feel free to tell us if you’ve been vaccinated with a ‘booster’ and what are your thoughts now!
