Tag: covid boosters

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Half Dose of COVID Booster Yields Similar Immune Response to Full One

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Gustavo Fring on Pexels

Reducing the dose of a widely used COVID booster vaccine produces a similar immune response in adults to a full-dose with fewer side effects, according to a new study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific. The research found that a half dose of a Pfizer COVID booster vaccine elicited a non-inferior immune response to a full dose in Mongolian adults who previously had AstraZeneca or Sinopharm COVID shots. But it found half-dose boosting may be less effective in adults primed with the Sputnik V COVID vaccine. 

The research, led by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and the National Centre for Communicable Diseases in Mongolia, is part of an international clinical trial investigating the different COVID booster shot approaches to help guide future vaccination strategies. 

The first batch of findings, and involving 601 participants over 18 years old from Mongolia, reports on the initial responses seen 28-days after vaccination. The study is the first of its kind to assess and compare COVID-19 vaccines widely used in low- and middle-income countries.

MCRI Professor Kim Mulholland, who also sits on the WHO SAGE committee, said the study found that fractional doses elicited an immune response that was non-inferior to a full dose with fewer side effects and was less costly.

“Fractional dosing may improve COVID booster acceptability and uptake and reduce the per-dose cost of COVID-19 booster programs,” he said. “Policymakers and immunisation advisory committees can draw upon this data to make flexible boosting schedules decisions.”

The study found that participants receiving a half dose reported fewer local reactions than those receiving full doses (60% versus 72%) including less pain and tenderness. They also reported fewer systemic reactions (25% vs 32%) including less fevers, vomiting, diarrhoea and headaches. 

The cohort will be followed up at six and 12 months with the data to answer key questions on other aspects of the immune response including the rate of waning and breakthrough infections. 

Source: Murdoch Children’s Hospital

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Updated Bivalent Boosters Offer Better Protection against Omicron

On By ModernMedia
Image by Ivan Diaz on Unsplash

A real-world effectiveness study of updated bivalent mRNA vaccines has shown that bivalent boosters are more effective than original monovalent boosters at preventing hospitalisation and death from the Omicron variant. The study was published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“While original COVID vaccines had been demonstrated to be safe and effective prior to the FDA’s authorisation, the Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccines that have been deployed in the United States since last fall were approved by the FDA for emergency use on the basis of non-clinical data for those two new vaccines,” explains Dr Danyu Lin, lead author on the study. “We were able to evaluate not only the effectiveness of the two bivalent boosters but also compare their effectiveness to that of monovalent boosters.”

Researchers at the at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health compared the incidence of severe Omicron infection resulting in hospitalisation or death for individuals aged 12 and up who received a monovalent or bivalent booster dose to those who did not. The study analysed vaccination and infection data of more than six million North Carolina residents from May to December of 2022, during which the Omicron variant’s BA.4.6/BA.5 and BQ.1/BQ.1.1 strains were predominant in the United States. Both the Pfizer and Moderna bivalent vaccines were included in the study, which also considered different age groups, previous infection status, and the number of booster doses already received.

The effectiveness of the booster was highest at roughly four weeks after administration and decreased afterward. Average effectiveness against severe infection resulting in hospitalisation or death over a three-month period was 25% for one monovalent booster dose and 62% for one bivalent booster dose.

“The increased effectiveness found in this study demonstrates why it’s important for people to protect themselves with the updated booster even if they had already gotten the original booster dose,” says Dr Zack Moore, State Epidemiologist with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Getting a COVID Booster Shot is not as Easy as it Should be

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

By Daniel Steyn for GroundUp

As COVID cases rise again around the world and the more infectious XBB.1.5 variant spreads rapidly, health minister Joe Paahla has emphasised the importance of getting vaccinated and boosted.

About 19 million people in South Africa (just over 30% of the population) are fully vaccinated and four million booster shots have been administered. The country is administering just over 40 000 jabs a week.

At the moment only people over 50 are eligible for a second booster. But according to Dr Nicholas Crisp, Deputy Director-General for the National Department of Health, all adults will be eligible in February. “As soon as the systems are all in place and staff orientated, the department will announce,” Crisp told GroundUp.

But finding a booster shot has become difficult. Privately-owned facilities have mostly discontinued their rollout of the vaccine, although a handful of Dis-Chem pharmacies still do vaccinations. Public sector health facilities are the only alternative.

Active vaccination sites can be found on the government’s Find My Jab website. Some are “visiting” sites only, open once or twice a week, and others are permanently open, but it is advised to call ahead to confirm availability.

“The department is trying to find a more efficient way of updating which vaccination sites are active and those are being reflected and changed weekly on Find My Jab,” says Crisp.

The Western Cape Health Department makes weekly updates to this list of vaccination sites in the province.

One concerned reader from Pennington in KwaZulu-Natal, who is over the age of 50 and HIV-positive (meaning COVID poses a higher risk for him) told GroundUp that his local clinic no longer offered vaccines. It had been ten months since his previous booster. He went to the nearest hospital but was refused a jab and told to wait for an SMS.

He called the vaccination hotline and was told to send a copy of his ID and vaccination card to be registered on the system and receive an SMS, despite already having received jabs in the past.

Without a device to send the documents, and 60km of flood-damaged road between him and and his nearest PostNet, he has still not received his booster shot.

Republished from GroundUp under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Source: GroundUp