Thread by @sailorrooscout

I’m seeing a lot of confusion today. Would it help if I composed a thread on boosters? I do have some real-world data that may be helpful.

Also, good morning! ☀️

THREAD ON BOOSTERS 🧵
There seems to be a lot of confusion today regarding the subject of boosters so let’s see if I can make this a little bit easier to understand so that you can make an informed decision. Let’s do this.

To start off, new real-world data out of England on booster effectiveness shows OVER 90% vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection when comparing boosted vaccinated individuals to unvaccinated individuals. Most have probably seen the headline that boosters will be

offered to everyone who is over 40 in an effort to help protect everyone over the harsh winter months. So what is it that you need to know? TWO very important things you should know from this study that looked at individuals 50 and up and those considered to be in

clinical risk groups. I’m going to try to make this as easy to interpret as possible.
•When comparing VE of boosters vs. a primary two-dose series as a baseline, the booster ADDED 81-85% protection against symptomatic infection. That is ON TOP of what one already has from their

primary two-dose series. Are you a superhero at this point? Pretty close, my friend. Pretty close. This is where the support for boosters has come in and it seems to fall in line with the data out of Pfizer’s booster study I previously highlighted regarding 95.6% effectiveness

against symptomatic infection vs. primary two-dose series.
•The second thing is that data shows tremendous support for heterologous doses for AstraZeneca and Pfizer. I have been asked about this mix a lot so it’s good to have the data in hand. You can see D2 being Dose 2 or

“pre-boost” and then how adding a Pfizer booster dose increased VE to 93.1%! That’s pretty HIGH and the highest AstraZeneca has seen against symptomatic infection on its own. For those of you who had Pfizer, the news is positive for you too. A booster of Pfizer on top of your

primary two-dose series increases to a VE of 94% against symptomatic infection! We knew that heterologous doses were advantageous and produced an optimal immune response, but if you have homologous doses, don’t fret either. There are still questions we don’t have the answers to

at the moment. For one, we don’t know how long the VE for the boost holds up or who would benefit most from boosters in the future or how frequently. If I had to guess, I would think that after we make it through the harsher winter months, and the most vulnerable in populations

are protected, that we could possibly see this become a yearly vaccine that is no different from an influenza vaccine schedule or something of the like. No one knows that just yet. bbc.com/news/health-59…

What we do know is that protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death is sustained well beyond six months. You can read my previous threads on that matter (or let me know if I need to link you) and you can read: bbc.com/news/health-59….

For those who have previously had COVID and are fully vaccinated, it has been shown you likely do not need a booster just yet unless you are considered high-risk. miamiherald.com/news/coronavir…

So, for the rest of us, what's the point of boosters? Preventing infections. Controlling transmission. If we CAN prevent infections in the most vulnerable populations, that’s a huge win and boosters seem to allow us to do just that. Prevention is key. khub.net/documents/1359…