New research into the effectiveness of the Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot suggests getting a third dose significantly reduces the risk of disease-related hospitalization and death.
Conducted by Israel’s Clalit Research Institute in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University,compared data from 728,321 individuals age 12 and older who received a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine with the same number of people who received only two doses at least five months prior.
According to the study, receiving the Pfizer booster shot reduced COVID-related hospitalization by 93 per cent, COVID-related death by 81 per cent, and severe COVID-19 illness by 92 per cent, compared with receiving just two doses.
The study took place in Israel from July 30 through Sept. 23. Researchers looked at the number of COVID-19-related hospital admissions, deaths and severity of disease based on criteria from the. The study also found that a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 88 per cent.
“To date, one of the main drivers of vaccine hesitancy has been a lack of information regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine,” said Ben Reis, director of the Predictive Medicine Group at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Children's Hospital Computational Health Informatics Program, in the press release.
Researchers, however, do note that the rate of COVID-19 hospitalization and severe disease among those age 16 to 39 was too small to determine the booster’s effectiveness. The study also did not include health-care workers, those living in long-term care facilities or people medically confined to their homes.