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Residents of older adult care homes, people who are 75 and over and those who are immunosuppressed are now eligible to book a Spring Covid booster.
The rollout of a fourth dose follows from new advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) after research led by UCL found vaccination immunity in care home residents wanes substantially after three months.
Researchers used data from more than 300 care homes in England
The study, funded by the UK Health Security Agency, looked at data from more than 15,000 residents and 19,000 staff at 331 care homes in England.
While two doses of the Covid vaccine were effective at preventing 85.4% of hospitalisations and 94.4% of deaths among care home residents between two and 12 weeks after the second dose, after three to seven months, this fell to 54.3% of hospitalisations and 62.89% of deaths.
The researchers found that the booster jabs given in the autumn restored powerful short-term immunity, however, they cautioned this protection was likely to wane in a similar way to the protection provided by first and second doses.
Repeated booster doses may be needed
Professor Laura Shallcross (UCL Institute of Health Informatics), leader of the UCL-led Vivaldi team, said the data suggests that “repeated booster jabs may be needed to protect elderly care home residents in future, as immunity wanes relatively quickly in this group following vaccination.”
“We observe an increased risk of infection, hospital admission and death in residents as early as 12 weeks following vaccination. This underscores the critical need for continued surveillance in care homes to provide an early warning of surges in infection linked to new variants or waning immunity,” she added.
Researchers analysed the efficacy of first, second and third vaccine doses
The researchers also evaluated the effectiveness of first, second and third doses of vaccination among residents and staff over a one-year period, using national data from PCR testing carried out two to three times a month, as well as hospitalisations and death registrations data.
Among staff (who had a median age of 45), the researchers found that vaccine effectiveness fell only slightly, with a 50% reduced risk of infection between two and 12 weeks after the jab and a 42.1% reduced risk after 12 weeks.
After a third booster vaccination, staff had a 78.3% reduced risk of infection and their risk of hospitalisation was reduced by 95.8%.
The researchers note that levels of protection following an mRNA (Pfizer or Moderna) booster dose were similar regardless of whether the first two doses were Oxford-AstraZeneca or mRNA vaccines.