A serological study conducted at an Israeli hospital has found that antibody levels in the body after the administration of a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine were ten times higher than those detected after the second dose.
Preliminary results, seen among vaccinated staff at Ramat Gan Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv, have sparked optimism about how long the booster shot will keep its protection, the public channel reported on Tuesday. Kan.
The study compared antibody levels one week after administering the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine to its staff to its levels one week after the second dose was administered.
The hospital told the network it was treating the results with caution and would continue to monitor antibody levels for the next few months.
Israel, the first country to officially offer a third dose, began its COVID reinforcement campaign on August 1, initially launching it for over-60s. It then gradually lowered the eligibility age and eventually extended it to all those over 12 years of age. who received the second shot at least five months ago.
As of Wednesday, nearly 3 million Israelis had received a third dose.
The coronavirus tsar, Salman Zarka, has called on the country to begin preparing to end up administering fourth doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
The tsar of the coronavirus, Professor Salman Zarka, attends a press conference on the coronavirus in Jerusalem on August 29, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
“Given that the virus is here and will continue to be here, we must also prepare for a fourth injection,” Zarka told Kan on Sept. 4.
He did not specify when the fourth vaccine could be administered.
“Thinking about … declining vaccines and antibodies, it seems like every few months (maybe once a year or five or six months) we’ll need another shot,” he told the Times of Israel last month .
The Ministry of Health also announced earlier this month that the “Green Pass”, a document that allows entry to certain meetings and public places for people vaccinated or recovered from coronavirus, will expire six months after the holder have received the second or third. dose, implying that a fourth dose may be administered after six months.
However, the high level of antibodies seen in the new Sheba data could mean that a fourth dose should only be administered after a longer period of time, according to the Kan report.
Earlier this week, 18 leading scientists and two outgoing FDA officials stated that there is no current need to give the general population third doses.
The report, published in the medical journal The Lancet, concluded that, even with the threat of the Delta variant of the hyperinfectious virus, “booster doses for the general population are not adequate at this stage of the pandemic. “.
An Israeli man receives a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccination center organized by the Jerusalem Municipality and the Home Front Command, outside Jerusalem City Hall, on August 30, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
After some countries, including Israel, began offering booster shots for fears about the much more contagious Delta variant, the World Health Organization called for a moratorium on third-party shootings amid concerns over the supply of vaccines to poorer countries, where millions have not yet received the first.
“I will not be silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think that the world’s poor should be satisfied with the remains,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters last Wednesday.
In statements from WHO headquarters in Geneva, Tedros urged rich countries and vaccine manufacturers to give priority to receiving the first shots at health workers and vulnerable populations in poorer nations than at the helm.
“We don’t want to see widespread use of reinforcements for fully vaccinated healthy people,” he said.
AFP contributed to this report.