Now there are 3 reports for vaccine effectiveness vs Omicron hospitalization, @UKHSA, @KPSCalResearch and today's @CDCMMWR. They are quite consistent for marked protection of the 3rd shot (booster). My summary table here
Here are the data from the new CDC report for vaccine effectiveness for both Delta and Omicron, 2-dose or 3-dose and vs Emergency Room visits or Hospitalizations
This week's @CDCgov booster ad, edited, which continued to assert "[2-shot] vaccines are working very well to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and death....
Debunking the notion that boosters don't reduce Omicron symptomatic infections. Another new study from Qatar shows they are halved medrxiv.org/content/10.110… matched >400,000 people with mRNA vaccines 2 vs 3-dose
Booster vaccine effectiveness vs Omicron infections 62% (2 dose 32%) @UKHSA in people without Prior Covid assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
and higher with Prior Covid, hybrid immunity, as seen in all studies
It seems the people who write the vaccines w/ a booster aren't working against Omicron are completely out of touch with the data
I'd consider ~90% effectiveness vs hospitalization pretty, pretty damn good assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
Especially compared with 44% without a booster
Then there's data for age 65+:
94% effectiveness, going to 89% after 10+ weeks khub.net/documents/1359…
Maybe people will realize that we're very fortunate, given Omicron's extensive immune escape, to have this level of protection from an extra dose of a vaccine directed against a virus from 2 years ago erictopol.substack.com/p/were-very-lu…
New data mRNA vaccine 4th dose timesofisrael.com/israeli-trial-…
—HCW, 154 Pfizer, 120 Moderna, + control group
—Increase in antibodies > 3rd dose
—Little effect on Omicron cases
—No data yet for ? severe disease, memory B/T cells, higher or more durable protection
—Uncertain benefit/need
Last week @UKHSA published their new data on Omicron and 2 dose vs 3 dose vaccine effectiveness (VE) vs infections assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…
In people w/o prior Covid, the booster approximately doubled VE, the 62% isn't bad (point estimate)
But
It falls off pretty fast, this vs Omicron (and Delta) symptomatic infections. So an important unresolved question is whether the 4th dose helps prevents this attrition of VE over time vs symptomatic infection and severe disease
The 1st day drop in US hospitalizations, including weekends and holidays, in 1 month. Hopefully, it's a good omen newsnodes.com/us ( less by >2300)
Going along with this yesterday was New York's reduction of 548 patients hospitalized, the most in a day in 9 months. Test positivity is coming down in recent days
17 January
2 days in a row of decreasing US hospitalizations, very good to see
First report of US outcomes for Omicron: ~53,000 cases in Southern California (vs Delta), consistent w/ S Africa and UK medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
~50% less hospital admission from ER/out-patient
~75% less ICU admission
~70% reduction in hospital length of stay
Evidence for vaccine protection vs Omicron symptomatic hospital admission (For Covid) among cases tested in outpatient settings
This is all good news to confirm reports from South Africa, UK, Denmark, Israel, and other countries.
But please do not forget that when there's 5-10X cases, there's still an overload of ER visits/hospital/ICU admissions.
Especially among unvaccinated and vaccinated, waned.