Good News! Third Dose Can Give Big Boost To Vaccine Effectiveness Against Omicron, Reveals Study

New Delhi: In what could be termed as a big relief amid the surging cases of new Covid variant Omicron, a new study published in UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) shows that a third dose of Covid-19 v

Written by: India.com News Desk Edited by: Victor Dasgupta

Updated: January 3, 2022, 4:22 PM IST

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New Delhi: In what could be termed as a big relief amid the surging cases of new Covid variant Omicron, a new study published in UK Health Security Agency (UKSHA) shows that a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine can boost a person’s resistance to Omicron variant by as much as 88 per cent. Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine, and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in the US informed that the vaccine effectiveness drops to 52% against Omicron around six months after taking the second shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Topol took to Twitter and wrote, “That’s a big boost of protection for 3rd dose vaccine vs hospitalisation from Omicron infection. Vaccine effectiveness increased from 52 per cent (due to 2-dose waning after 6 months) to 88 per cent after the 3rd dose.”

That’s a big boost of protection for 3rd dose vaccine vs hospitalization from Omicron infectionhttps://t.co/gVl5c5o9nl
Vaccine effectiveness increased from 52% (due to 2-dose waning after 6 months) to 88% after the 3rd dose pic.twitter.com/c63Mpx8ClA

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) January 2, 2022

“It’s pretty impressive that vaccines directed to the ancestral strain spike from 2 years ago, with the virus that’s evolved through more than 290 million confirmed cases, and now to the hyper-mutated Omicron, have preserved efficacy of near 90 per cent vs severe disease with a 3rd shot,” he said in another tweet.

This latest study comes at a time when entire world is battling against the new covid variant, Omicron. Earlier, reports had suggested that effectiveness of the second dose wanes after a period of six months. Therefore, according to the latest study, the third dose will significantly give higher degree of protection against the latest mutated strain.

However, it is important to note that despite the estimated reduction in hospitalisation risk and preserved vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation, the study authors noted that there may still be large numbers of admissions to hospital.

According to the UKHSA report, two different studies examined the association between two COVID variant (Omicron and Delta) and vaccination status and risk of hospitalisation.

First Study

• The first study was based on approximately half a million Omicron cases from all age group
• The first study confirms the previous finding of reduced overall risk of hospitalisation for Omicron compared to Delta variant.
• The first study found that a substantial reduction in risk of hospitalisation for Omicron cases after three doses of vaccine compared to those who are unvaccinated.

Second Study:

• The second one used a smaller dataset and is restricted to ages 18 and over.
• The second study also found that a substantial reduction in risk of hospitalisation for Omicron cases after three doses of vaccine compared to those who are unvaccinated.