COVID booster shot 86% effective among people over 60, Israeli data shows

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The third shot of the coronavirus vaccine is 86 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection among people 60 and older, one of Israel’s leading health care providers announced Wednesday.

A study by the Maccabi health maintenance organization, the first of its kind in the world, surveyed 149,144 people who received the booster shot, as well a control group of 675,630 people who had received the second shot of the vaccine between January and February. Of the former, only 37 tested positive, compared with 1,064 of the latter. Both groups were surveyed a week after receiving the third jab.

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“The third shot is highly effective both against infection and against serious illness,” Dr Anat Zohar, the head of digital information and health at Maccabi, said.

“I call on anyone aged 50 and over who haven’t yet received the third shot to get vaccinated in order to defend yourselves and your loved ones. The effectivity of the vaccination is proving itself against the delta variant and is the solution for curbing widespread infection,” Zohar said.

Israel began administering booster shots two weeks ago. This weekend, it expanded the campaign and began to offer a third shot to people over 50 as well as younger people who are employed in geriatric and health care institutions, or suffer from underlying conditions. So far, 1.1 million Israelis have received their third shot.

Israel’s vaccination committee is slated to discuss on Thursday administering the third COVID booster shot to Israelis aged 40 and up, lowering it from the current 50.

Over the weekend, the World Health Organization urged wealthy countries to stop administering third coronavirus shots, arguing that to do so while many poor countries have barely started administering first doses is both morally and epidemiologically unacceptable.

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“The more people remain unvaccinated against #COVID19 globally, the more opportunity the virus has to spread and evolve into potentially more dangerous variants, which increases the risk for everybody. This is why we need a moratorium on boosters,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom tweeted Sunday.

Israel has ignored the WHO plea. In a response, In a response the Health Ministry told Haaretz that the decision to administer a third shot was made after medical factors were taken into consideration and that inoculating Israelis with a third dose saves lives.

Israel hopes that a third dose will boost antibody levels and thereby stop the spread of the virus, and above all the rise in the number of serious cases.