Data from first real-world study of how the Pfizer-BioNTech shot holds up against Omicron show big drop-off in effectiveness against infection
more widely in the hope that—as early studies have suggested—a further shot will shore up protection against Omicron.
The study examined 211,610 Covid-19 test results in adults reported since the beginning of September. It used that data to compare vaccine effectiveness during September and October, when Delta was dominant, with the three-week period between Nov. 15 and Dec. 7, when Omicron took hold. Discovery Health insures around 3.7 million people in South Africa.
The findings build on earlier, laboratory-based research from various groups around the world examining how well the blood of vaccinated people neutralizes the Omicron variant.
Protection against severe disease appeared to decline with age, but the researchers cautioned that the data was uncertain and could be complicated by a larger waning effect in older groups, who would have received their shots earlier. The researchers also found that Omicron eroded the protective effect of prior infection.
Separately, the study found that, adjusting for various factors, including age, adults infected with the Omicron variant were 29% less likely to need hospitalization than during the country’s first wave, which was dominated by a strain known as D614G. It also found that, among those who were admitted to hospital, the disease appeared to be less serious, with 5% of hospitalized patients needing intensive care, versus 22% during the Delta wave.
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