Efficacy In Young People
Following Medsafe Provisional Approval, the decision to vaccinate young people aged 1215 years has been approved by Vaccine Ministers, Health Officials and Cabinet.
Pfizers study in 12- to 15-year-olds looked for signs of a strong immune response to the vaccine. Pfizer reported 100 percent efficacy in this age group .
Who Else Can Take The Vaccine
The comorbidities studied in in the phase 3 clinical trial included chronic lung disease, significant cardiac disease, severe obesity, diabetes, liver disease and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Vaccination is recommended for persons with such comorbidities that have been identified as increasing the risk of severe COVID-19.
Although further studies are required for immunocompromised persons, people in this category who are part of a group recommended for vaccination may be vaccinated after receiving information and counselling.
Persons living with HIV are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease. Known HIV-positive vaccine recipients should be provided with information and counselling.
Vaccination can be offered to people who have had COVID-19 in the past. But individuals may wish to defer their own COVID-19 vaccination for up to six months from the time of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Vaccine effectiveness is expected to be similar in lactating women as in other adults. WHO recommends the use of the vaccine in lactating women as in other adults. WHO does not recommend discontinuing breastfeeding because of vaccination.
Should pregnant women be vaccinated?
Vaccines Appear Weak At Blocking Omicron Better Against Severe Disease
Vials with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus disease vaccine labels are seen in this illustration picture taken March 19, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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Vaccines appear weak vs Omicron infection, better vs severe disease
Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is likely to be much lower than against earlier variants, but they may still offer substantial protection against severe disease, a new analysis suggests.
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Billy Gardner and Marm Kilpatrick from the University of California, Santa Cruz developed computer models incorporating data on COVID-19 vaccines’ efficacy against earlier variants and initial data on the Pfizer /BioNTech vaccine against Omicron. Their models suggest that early after two doses of an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna , efficacy against symptomatic infection from Omicron is only about 30%, down from about 87% versus Delta, they reported on Sunday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Protection against symptomatic infection is “essentially eliminated” for individuals vaccinated more than four months earlier. Boosters restore protection to about 48%, “which is similar to the protection of individuals with waned immunity against the Delta variant ,” Kilpatrick said.
COVID-19 vaccines may reduce long COVID burden
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Cdc Updates Domestic Travel Guidelines As More People Are Vaccinated
People who are partly vaccinated shouldn’t change their behavior, said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who is a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee. Instead, they should sit tight until they have completed their vaccination series.
“It just frightens me that we have, in any sense, put out there the notion that are anything other than a two-dose vaccine,” Offit said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last week that the first doses of the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines were 80 percent effective at preventing infection. The protection was measured two weeks after the first doses but before the second.
Newest Data Suggests Second Shot Provides Better Protection Against Variants
Real-word data from the UK posted May 23 by Public Health England showed that Pfizer’s and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccines worked better against the variants when two doses were given rather than just one. Both vaccines were 30% effective against COVID-19 with symptoms caused by the Delta variant, first identified in India, three weeks after the first dose.
This was boosted to between 60% and 88% effectiveness two weeks after the second dose. The two vaccines were 50% effective against COVID-19 with symptoms against the variant first found in the UK, Alpha, three weeks after the first dose. This increased to between 66% and 93% two weeks after the second dose.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, said on June 8 that getting two doses of COVID-19 vaccines would stop the Delta variant from spreading across the US. In the UK, Professor Deborah Dunn-Walters, chair of the British Society for Immunology COVID-19 Taskforce, said in a statement on June 4 that two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine were “critical for protection” against emerging strains of the virus.
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Boosters Give Over 90% Protection Against Symptomatic Covid
Results from first UK real-world study by UKHSA show significantly increased protection against symptomatic disease from Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine booster dose in those aged 50 and above.
- From:
- 15 November 2021 See all updates
These findings show that 2 weeks after receiving a booster dose, protection against symptomatic infection in adults aged 50 years and over was 93.1% in those with AstraZeneca as their primary course and 94.0% for Pfizer-BioNTech.
After a primary course of AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, effectiveness against symptomatic disease appears to wear off with time. Overall, vaccine effectiveness against severe outcomes such as hospital admission remains high for several months after completing the primary course, but greater waning has been seen in older adults and those with underlying medical conditions compared to young, healthy adults. As a result, the JCVI recommended a booster vaccine programme to eligible groups, including adults aged 50 years and above on 14 September 2021. This was extended to adults over 40 on 15 November 2021.
Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at UKHSA, said:
Public Health England press office
Wellington House
The Vaccines Are Very Effective And May Help Reduce The Severity Of The Disease
In Phase 3 studies, both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were found to be 95% effective in the early months after the vaccine. Put simply, If there were 100 people who would have gotten COVID, it prevented 95 of them from getting it, but it didnt prevent all 100, says Dr. Marks. It definitely provides some protection, but its not perfect.
The good news is that early data found that those who did contract COVID-19 after receiving the vaccine did not develop a severe form of the disease. So even if it doesnt completely prevent illness, the study data shows that it does reduce the severity, says Dr. Marks.
The third vaccine authorized in the United States also provides strong protection against severe illness and death. This vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, reported a 72% efficacy rate in preventing moderate to severe disease from COVID-19 in the U.S. and was 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease. Among the people who received the vaccine during clinical trials, after 28 days no one who contracted COVID-19 was hospitalized or died.
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Missed Opportunity To Buy More Pfizer Vaccine
Pfizer officials offered Operation Warp Speed the opportunity to buy more than the initial 100 million doses the government originally ordered, but the Trump administration passed on the offer, the New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources who are familiar with the talks. According to the report, Pfizer gave US officials an option to request 100 million to 500 million more doses and warned that demand could outstrip supply as other governments locked in their orders.
A spokeswoman with the Department of Health and Human Services , when asked if federal officials missed a crucial opportunity to buy up more vaccine, said the government is confident that it will have 100 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and anticipates supplies from five other vaccine candidates.
President Trump was expected to sign an executive order today to ensure that Americans will have access to COVID-19 vaccine before it begins helping other nations, Fox News reported.
In other vaccine developments:
How Do These Vaccines Work
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines both use mRNA technology. The cells in your body naturally use mRNA all the time to create many different types of proteins that you need to stay healthy.
The mRNA in the two-dose COVID-19 vaccines provide the cells of your body with instructions on how to make the spike protein thats specific to the new coronavirus. This spike protein is found on the surface of the virus. It uses this spike protein to attach to and enter a host cell in your body.
When you get your COVID-19 vaccine, your immune system processes information on the spike protein and generates an immune response to it. This includes the production of antibodies.
Vaccines hinge on a very important aspect of your immune system, which is the fact that it has memory. After your vaccination, your immune system continues to store information on the spike protein.
If youre exposed to the new coronavirus, your immune system will then use this stored information to respond and protect you from the virus. This can help prevent you from becoming sick with COVID-19.
The entire immunity process typically takes around 2 weeks after the second dose of vaccine. Thats why you can still contract the new coronavirus and become ill if youre exposed to it shortly after getting your vaccine.
relatively weak immune response when given as just one dose. However, there was a stronger immune response when a second dose was added.
Why do you need this waiting period?
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If The Gap Between Your Appointments Is Less Than 6 Weeks
If you have already booked and the gap between your appointments is less than 6 weeks, you can keep the second appointment or choose to change it.
The important thing is to get 2 doses of the vaccine to be fully vaccinated.
To cancel or modify your booking you can:
- call the COVID Vaccination Healthline on .
Vaccines Still Offer Protection
Although the protection against COVID-19 infection wanes over time and breakthrough infections cannot be prevented completely, that doesnt mean that you shouldn’t get vaccinated in the first place.
Although vaccine effectiveness against infection decreased substantially during the Delta surge as measured in this study of Veterans, protection against death remained relatively high, particularly with the mRNA vaccines, William Moss, MD, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Verywell.
It is important for people to be vaccinated to protect themselves against severe COVID-19, including hospitalization and death, he added. We can live with an infection that causes mild illness, but not with one that causes people to be hospitalized and die, and one that overwhelms our health care systems.
The study showed that the risk of COVID-19 infection and death after infection was highest among unvaccinated veterans, which only highlights the importance of vaccination even further.
Having some protection against COVID-19 is better than having no protection, Scott Roberts, MD, Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist and assistant professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, told Verywell. Even in those who do get infected because of declining immunity, there is still a degree of protection against bad outcomes such as hospitalization and death.
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How Long After Vaccination Are You Protected Against Covid
- After the second vaccination, you are well protected against COVID-19 7 days after vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine or 14 days after vaccination with the Moderna or AstraZeneca vaccine. After the first vaccination with Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca, you may still get COVID-19 because your immune response to the virus is not yet fully developed. After the second vaccination, there is a much lower risk of becoming ill, because you are better protected. That is why it is important to get the second vaccination as well. See four reasons why the second vaccination is so important on Government.nl .
- You are also sufficiently protected against COVID-19 14 days after one vaccination with the Janssen vaccine.
- You are also sufficiently protected against COVID-19 14 days after one vaccination with another vaccine, and if you had already had COVID-19 before receiving that vaccination.
The vaccination also protects the people around you. You are much less likely to be contagious after vaccination. To minimise this risk as much as possible, a waiting period applies: 14 days for the vaccines made by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, and 28 days for the Janssen vaccine. After this waiting period, you are less likely to infect the people around you.
If you are protected against COVID-19, then you do not need to quarantine. Read more about quarantine and isolation.
Booster Shots And Third Doses For Covid
Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., senior director of infection prevention, and Gabor Kelen, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, explain what you need to know about third vaccine doses and COVID boosters. While both kinds of shots are additional doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines , they have different purposes and are intended for different groups of people.
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Does It Work Against New Variants
Based on the evidence so far, the new variants of SARS-CoV-2, including the B.1.1.7 and the 501Y.V2, do not alter the effectiveness of the Moderna mRNA vaccine. The monitoring, collection and analysis of data on new variants and their impact on the effectiveness of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines continues.
Protection Drops To 20% After 5 To 7 Months
A team led by Cornell University at Qatar researchers estimated vaccine effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe or fatal disease from Jan 1 to Sep 5, 2021. The observational study used a test-negative, case-control design.
In Qatar, 947,035 of residents 12 years and older had received at least one Pfizer vaccine dose from Dec 21, 2020, to Sep 5, 2021, and 907,763 had received two. Median time between the two doses was 21 days. Over the same period, 564,196 residents were given at least one dose of the Moderna vaccine, 494,859 of whom received two doses.
In the first 2 weeks after the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, estimated VE against any SARS-CoV-2 infection was less than 0. A week later, it increased to 36.8%, peaking at 77.5% in the 4 weeks after the second dose.
But VE against infection with SARS-CoV-2 and all variants gradually waned after 1 month, with the decline accelerating after month 4, to only about 20% after 5 to 7 months after the second dose, regardless of age-group. While VE against both asymptomatic and symptomatic infection waned similarly, VE against symptomatic illness was higher.
VE against severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 rose quickly after the first dose, reaching 66.1% by the third week after receipt of the first vaccine dose and at least 96% in the first 2 months after the second dose. VE remained at 90% or higher for 6 months. Median study participant age was 31 years, and 69% were male.
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Who Should Not Take The Vaccine
Individuals with a history of severe allergic reaction to any component of the vaccine should not take this or any other mRNA vaccine.
While vaccination is recommended for older persons due to the high risk of severe COVID-19 and death, very frail older persons with an anticipated life expectancy of less than 3 months should be individually assessed.
The vaccine should not be administered to persons younger than 18 years of age pending the results of further studies.
If You Miss The Second Dose Appointment You Dont Need To Start Over
For the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, administration of the second dose is recommended to be 21 days after the first dose. For the Moderna vaccine, its 28 days after. The second dose should be the same type as the first one you received. If someone cant make it to their second appointment and misses the recommended window, it doesnt mean they will need another first shot. You dont need to restart the series, you just get the second one late, says Dr. Marks. There will definitely be reasons sometimes why people may miss it or their doctor may recommend they delay it. Everyone else should try to get it as close as they can to the recommended date.
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Does It Prevent Infection And Transmission
We do not know whether the vaccine will prevent infection and protect against onward transmission. Immunity persists for several months, but the full duration is not yet known. These important questions are being studied.
In the meantime, we must maintain public health measures that work: masking, physical distancing, handwashing, respiratory and cough hygiene, avoiding crowds, and ensuring good ventilation.
This article was revised on 29 January 2021 to include a section dedicated to pregnant women, but the recommendations remain the same.
Equally Effective Protection With Interval Of 21 Days Or 28 Days Between First And Second Vaccination
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines protect equally well with 4 or more weeks between the first and second vaccination. After you are vaccinated, your body makes antibodies. 7 to 14 days after the first vaccination, 90% of vaccinated people are protected against COVID-19. We do not yet know exactly how long a person is protected. After a few weeks, antibody levels start dropping and protection becomes less effective. That is why a second vaccination is needed, which you will receive about 4 to 6 weeks after the first vaccination. In response to the second vaccination, your body makes more antibodies that persist for longer and are able to resist the virus more effectively. In terms of protection after the second vaccination, it does not matter whether you receive your second vaccination after 4-6 weeks or a bit later: you are still well protected.
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