A new study out of Israel is raising more questions over the efficacy of the COVID vaccine, with data showing the injections are able to block earlier strains of the virus but mostly unable to stop the Omicron variant.
Israel will continue to offer a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot, a health official said. A preliminary study by an Israeli hospital found that the fourth shot increases antibodies to higher levels than the third but ‘probably’ not enough to fend off Omicron https://t.co/Uh4CzhyTJs pic.twitter.com/V5rBCV8y0d
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 18, 2022
“Israel will continue to offer a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot despite preliminary findings that it is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday, predicting contagions stoked by the variant will wane in a week,” reports Reuters.
“The vaccine, which was very effective against the previous strains, is less effective against the Omicron strain,” Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, a lead researcher confirmed.
“We see an increase in antibodies, higher than after the third dose,” Regev-Yochay said. “However, we see many infected with Omicron who received the fourth dose. Granted, a bit less than in the control group, but still a lot of infections,” she added.
“The bottom line is that the vaccine is excellent against the Alpha and Delta [variants], for Omicron it’s not good enough,” she said.
Read the full report here.