Getting a second booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine doesn’t offer long-lived protection against the virus, but a new study finds that” protection against severe illness did not wane for at least several weeks,” according to CNN.
The study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, examines more than 1.25 million people in Israel 60 or older who have been fully vaccinated. The time period of the study was January through March 2022, when the Omicron variant of the virus became dominant.
“The rate of severe Covid-19 infection in the fourth week after a fourth dose of vaccine was lower than in people who got only three doses by a factor of 3.5,” CNN reported. “However, protection against severe illness did not seem to wane in the six weeks after the fourth shot, though the study period wasn’t long enough to determine exactly how long this protection lasts.”
The researchers, though, did say there was some benefit from a fourth shot.
“Overall, these analyses provided evidence for the effectiveness of a fourth vaccine dose against severe illness caused by the omicron variant, as compared with a third dose administered more than 4 months earlier. For confirmed infection, a fourth dose appeared to provide only short-term protection and a modest absolute benefit,” they wrote.
“Several reports have indicated that the protection against hospital admission conferred by a third dose given more than 3 months earlier is substantially lower against the omicron variant than the protection of a fresh third dose against hospital admission for illness caused by the B.1.617.2 (delta) variant. In our study, a fourth dose appeared to increase the protection against severe illness relative to three doses that were administered more than 4 months earlier,” the researchers wrote.
The Israeli study comes after another that found a new anti-viral drug has been shown in early testing to eliminate COVID-19 infections in just a few days, the fastest so far identified.The drug, molnupiravir, “effectively neutralized infections of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID) among a sample group by day three after starting therapy,” Study Finds reported. “Meanwhile, other COVID-19 patients taking a placebo took up to five days to make the same medical progress. For some patients in the control group, their recovery took even longer.”
“Molnupiravir is an oral antiviral prodrug that boasts broad activity against numerous coronaviruses. Prodrugs ‘switch on’ and become active once they enter the body. Importantly, the drug is active against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, including Delta and Omicron,” the website wrote.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has already approved an emergency use authorization (EAU) request for molnupiravir, which is also in use in other countries, including Japan, Australia and Britain.
The findings came as part of what was called a “MOVe-OUT” trial, which was double blind and randomized, as well as being placebo-controlled. The researchers used PCR tests to measure the viral loads of SARS-CoV-2 in patients, then compared the results of using the drug versus those from patients given placebos.
“This analysis of the final virologic outcome data from MOVe-OUT confirms previous observations demonstrating that a 5-day treatment course of twice-daily 800 mg molnupiravir results in a more rapid decline in viral RNA and faster elimination of infectious virus than placebo,” Dr. Julie Strizki said in a media release. “This study provides additional evidence that molnupiravir helps those infected clear SARS-CoV-2 faster than placebo, and supports MOVe-OUT’s primary finding that molnupiravir can lower the risk of progression to serious illness in this high-risk cohort.”
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.