Israeli study finds Pfizer COVID-19 booster protects against Omicron
(VOVWORLD) - Israeli researchers said on Saturday they found that a three-shot course of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine provided significant protection against the new Omicron variant.
 A health worker prepares a dose of Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, at the Penda health center in Nairobi, Kenya, December 9, 2021. (Photo:REUTERS) |
The findings were similar to those presented by BioNTech and Pfizer earlier in the week, which were an early signal that booster shots could be key to protect against infection from the newly identified variant.
The study, carried out by Sheba Medical Center and the Health Ministry's Central Virology Laboratory, compared the blood of 20 people who had received two vaccine doses 5-6 months earlier to the same number of individuals who had received a booster a month before.
Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Sheba, told reporters that people who received the second dose 5 or 6 months ago do not have any neutralization ability against the Omicron while they do have some against the Delta. She added there is a significant protection of the booster dose.