Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have proven highly effective at preventing omicron-related hospitalizations, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports U.S. Today.
Effectiveness and CDC report
The booster doses were 90% effective at keeping people out of the hospital after they had become infected with the omicron variant. The doses also were 82% effective at preventing emergency department and urgent care visits, the data shows.
The CDC report analyzed emergency room visits, urgent care visits and hospitalizations between August 2021 and Jan. 5, 2022, in which the average person received their booster shot within a month and a half of needing medical help.
The data emphasizes recent research and assertions by public health officials that boosters significantly prevent severe illness and hospitalization.
About the study
Another CDC study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday found people who received three doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to be symptomatic when they got tested for COVID-19, compared to people receiving tests who only got two vaccine doses.
“Protection against infection and hospitalization with the omicron variant is highest for those who are up-to-date on their vaccination, meaning those who are boosted when they are eligible,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House COVID-19 response briefing Friday.
“Get your vaccinations up-to-date. It is essential for your protection,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said in the same briefing.
At Home test kits
As omicron cases continue to surge, Americans can now request free at-home COVID-19 tests from a federal government website to be shipped to their home. In Friday’s briefing, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said the free tests have begun shipping.
The Biden Administration doesn’t have most of the 500 million tests they said they would acquire yet, but they have “tens of millions” on-hand that began shipping Thursday, Jan. 20, said Zients.
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Source: U.S. Today
