Refillable doses provide 90 percent protection for people over 65 from becoming so sick after an omicron infection that they need to go to hospital, according to figures from the UK. Here a man gets his dose refilled at a pharmacy in London this Christmas. Photo: Gareth Fuller / PA via AP / NTB
By NTB | 08.01.2022 01:08:55
Medicine and health: The figures, originating from the UK health authorities, were applied to people over 65 three months after they were given the third dose. For those who had received two doses of the vaccine, the protection was about 70 percent three months after the last dose, and 50 percent after six months.
Professor Wei Shen Lim, chair of the JCVI, the scientific committee that oversees Britain’s vaccination programme, described the figures as “very encouraging”.
Therefore, the UK government has been advised not to give a second refill dose – that is, the fourth dose of vaccine – to people in nursing homes or people over the age of 80. The priority should be to offer people the first refill dose, and to get the unvaccinated to be vaccinated as soon as possible, he said.
(©NTB)