Should I get the updated COVID-19 vaccine?
12-16-2022 Update
Here is the original article.
12-17-2022 update:
Bivalent boosters protection against severe disease:
Summaries:
Katelyn Jetelina, PhD (excerpt from her article)
(first study) 65 years and older.
Compared to no prior vaccination, effectiveness of the fall booster against hospitalization was 84%.
Compared to 2+ previous mRNA vaccines, effectiveness was 73%.
The second study leveraged the VISION network—a network of nine hospitals in 11 different states. Scientists assessed emergency room and urgent care visits (a proxy for more severe disease) from September 13 to November 18, 2022. They included patients of all ages, not just over 65 years old. They found:
Compared to no prior vaccination, effectiveness of the fall booster against emergency room or urgent care visits was 56%.
Compared to 2+ previous mRNA vaccines, effectiveness was 31-50%.
This depended on timing of last dose. If someone got their last mRNA shot 2-4 months ago, for example, effectiveness was 31%. If the last dose was 12+ months ago, effectiveness was 50%.
Eric Topol, MD: (excerpt from his article)
“The first Table summarizes the data for age 65+ protection against hospitalization. It shows very high level of vaccine effectiveness compared with either no vaccination or the original booster (monovalent), irrespective of time (2 to more than 12 months elapsed). The is welcome, great news providing reassurance for such strong protection (post estimates range from 73-84%) in people of advanced age. And remember that a significant part of the time assessed for protection was during the rise of the BQ.1 variants to dominance. The BA.5 variant has been fading for weeks, which started just as the bivalent data was released. So these new data also provide a window into protection against BQ.1/BQ.1.1 which is notable.” “The other report contained data for all ages for protection vs emergency room and urgent care visits, and vs hospitalizations. Here is that Table showing the vaccine efffectiveness (VE, right column again) with lower levels of protection than for the high-risk seniors. But 57% reduced hospitalizations for all ages (compared with unvaccinated) is not anything to discount. Nor are the significant reductions of ER and urgent care visits, which are a softer outcome endpoint than hospitalizations. All of the data confirm that bivalent boosters work, and they work especially well in the people who need it the most—seniors.”
Reports from summaries:
Other studies and supplement information:
Information about Eric Topol, MD and Katelyn Jetelina, PhD (authors of the summaries).
Professor of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research. He is the Director & Founder of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in the Department of Molecular Medicine.
Scripps Research, previously known as The Scripps Research Institute is a nonprofit medical research facility that focuses on research and education in the biomedical sciences.
Katelyn Jetelina, PhD ( Your Local Epidemiologist)
This is a blog of a Texas epidemiologist whose goal is to “translate”the science of COVID-19 for the public. She was asked initially by her epidemiology department to send out emails to students and staff. She now has a Facebook page and blog with an international following.
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