The latest data from Pfizer about its new bivalent Covid booster is encouraging. In a news release late last week, Pfizer said it’s updated booster does better against the two circulating omicron variants (BA.4 and BA.5) than a booster shot of the original vaccine.
“The results of their preliminary studies about one month out from people getting vaccinated show that people were getting a very robust immune response,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, an expert on infectious diseases at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. “Even older people were getting a very good immune response in terms of measuring what’s called neutralizing antibodies.”
What’s still needed is to see how well the bivalent vaccine works in real life to protect against BA.5 and the new Omicron variants being detected.
“And we don’t have that data yet,” Dr. Swartzberg said. “Probably by sometime in early December is my guess, when we’re going to start to see good clinical data of how well the Bivalent vaccine is protecting us.”
So far, reactions to Pfizer’s updated Covid vaccine are no different than with previous versions.
Dr. Swartzberg is concerned that few people are getting the new booster – only 7% of those eligible, and just 20% of those 65 and older.
“Everybody in that age group, 65 and older, really should get it because that’s a high-risk age group,” he advised.
More Info:
Pfizer, BioNTech say bivalent COVID-19 booster shot performs better against BA.5 omicron subvariant
Pfizer releases more data indicating omicron boosters are better than old Covid shots
