Booster shots in U.S. have strongly protected from omicron variant, CDC studies show
Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines significantly prevented hospitalizations from the Omicron variant, according to Center for Disease Control and Prevention data. The studies are some of the first based on real world data, and include both the delta and omicron variants.
The study found that getting a third dose of an mRNA vaccine was at least 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19-associated hospitalization, both during the delta and omicron periods.
Vaccine boosters provided strong protection against severe disease from the omicron variant in the United States, according to three reports released Friday. The research emphasizes the importance of booster shots to protect against severe illness from the rapidly spreading variant.
The findings come as the U.S. is experiencing a massive spike in infections driven by the omicron variant, which has increased hospitals throughout the country.
In one analysis of 259 hospitals and 383 emergency departments from August through January, a third dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine was found to reduce the odds of a hospital or emergency room visit by 94 percent during the delta wave and by 82 percent during omicron.
The U.S. is averaging more than 2,000 COVID-19 deaths a day and daily new cases are averaging 738,000 a day. This is the highest average number of COVID-19 deaths since the end of September, but lower than the record of 3,300 lives lost a day in January 2021.
